Trinity Ascending
by Lacey Barbed Wire
Summary: The Son of Thunder has been found. The Daughter of Chaos has woken. And The Daughter of Hippolyta looks out at the world once more. Inspired by Nimbus Llewelyn's Child of the Storm
1. Chapter 1

Thor woke with a start, sensing a dark presence in his bedroom within Avengers Tower. He sat up immediately, summoning Mjolnir to his hand. Before he could do anything else however, the lights flickered on revealing a very, very tall man with the head of a beast. Strangely, or at least, strangely for someone who *wasn't* a god, this sight actually made Thor relax. "Oh Set." He said, setting down Mjolnir. "You startled me." The god of chaos' lips twisted up in a smirk.

"You ought to talk to Stark about his security." He growled. "It keeps mortals out just fine, but it poses no obstacles to a god. And need I remind you, Kali's still pissed about that monsoon." Thor winced.

"I will take this under advisement." He said gravely. "Now then, what do you want? I was under the impression that my father had banned you from Midgard." Set shrugged unconcernedly.

"I'm only here to talk to you for a bit." He said. "It's been over five thousand years, he can give me five minutes." Thor shifted in his bed.

"What do you need?" He asked flatly, somewhat concerned. The Egyptian god of Chaos wanting to talk was unlikely to be a good thing. He wasn't likely to attack him, but after the recent struggles with Loki Thor was rather on edge at the idea of dealing with any of the tricksters. Set swallowed.

"I need your help." He said briskly. "Due to my ban I've been only just learned that a daughter of Zeus has been living among men for close to a century." Thor blinked rapidly. This was news to him as well. "And since you also have a son..."

"I have a son?" Thor spluttered in shock, staring at him in disbelief. Set sighed.

"Yes yes, that gag from How It Should Have Ended was very amusing but this is not the ti..." He trailed off as Thor just stared at him, mouth agape. "Wait, you really didn't know?" He demanded. Thor shook his head.

"No, that...that isn't possible..." He said quietly. "Wh...when did..." Set sighed.

"The woman's name was Lily Evans." Thor blinked and looked at Set.

"Lily? But...I ate blightweed every day that I was with her, specifically to avoid putting her in such a situation." He stammered. Set just shrugged.

"Even blightweed isn't guaranteed one hundred percent of the time. Especially when the woman involved is an exceptionally powerful witch." He said bluntly. "But we're getting off topic. I didn't come here to tell you about your son. I only mentioned him because if Zeus gets to let his kid roam free, and you get to let *your* kid roam free, then it only seems fair that my daughter should be given the same opportunity." Thor blinked rapidly once more, jolted out of his shock.

"Banishment isn't what it used to be." He said dryly. Set snorted.

"She was born five thousand years ago, shortly before my banishment." He told Thor. "I was able to grant her certain gifts before I was forced to leave, but she was murdered soon afterward." Thor stared at him.

"I was unaware that Anubis and Osiris were handing out resurrections." He said slowly, his mind still racing at the idea that he had a son.

"One of my gifts prevented death from taking hold on her." Set said flatly. "As such she's been more or less hibernating for the intervening time. But now circumstances have forced me to wake her up lest her tomb be destroyed. I can guide and heal her for a time, but eventually your father will catch on and I'll be forced away once more. I'm asking you to keep an eye on her. Please." There was a long pause, and then Thor nodded. Twisted and malicious Set may be, but there was a strong ring of sincerity to his voice. And Thor was not one to let a child suffer, regardless of her parentage.

"Of course." Set nodded his thanks and moved to leave. Before he could though, Thor had one last question. "My son. What's his name?" Set glanced over his shoulder as he melted into the shadows.

"Harry Potter."

Six Minutes Later

Thor walked out of the elevator and into Tony's lab. The shorter man looked up in surprise. Thor was no scientist after all, and while Asgard was so far more advanced than Midgard that he could understand most of what Tony and Bruce worked on, it wasn't one of his interests. Plus it was the middle of the night, and while Tony wasn't one hundred percent clear on Asgardian biology and how much sleep Thor actually needed, the blonde was usually in his rooms at this time. "What can I do for you big guy?" He asked, carefully setting down his blow torch. Thor cleared his throat, his eyes shifting around the lab and his hands twisting. If Tony didn't know better he'd have sworn that Thor was nervous.

"I need you to locate someone for me." He said finally, still not meeting Tony's eyes. Tony frowned and cocked his head to the side.

"Well sure, but couldn't you just get that Heimdall guy to find whoever it is you're looking for?" He asked curiously. "I mean, the guy can see literally everything right?" Thor coughed awkwardly.

"Heimdall is...rather busy at the moment. There are a great many threats stirring across the Nine Realms as of late, and as the first line of defense for Asgard he must watch them all. And this is a...personal matter." Tony blinked, then shrugged.

"Fair enough." He said, walking over to the nearest computer and sitting down in front of it. "Who'm I lookin' for?" Thor took a deep breath.

"A young man named Harry Potter. He should be around the age of twelve now, and a British citizen. Son of Lily Potter, maiden name Evans." Tony nodded and set to work. It took him a minute or two, during which time Thor paced nervously.

"Alright I found him...I think." Tony said slowly. "It's weird, the kid has literally *no* social media presence. And all records of him in the school system stop right after he turned 11. As far as I can tell he hasn't been to a doctor in that time either. But there's plenty of footage of him from street cameras and stuff so...he's alive." Thor let out a sigh of relief and gave a quick nod.

"Thank you Tony. Could you tell me where he most likely is now?"

"Looks like...Number Four, Privet Drive, in Little Whinging, Surrey." Tony said after consulting the computer for a moment. He paused, then turned in his chair to look at Thor. "You mind telling me what this is about? I don't want to pry, but you seem pretty stressed." Thor took a deep breath, then gestured at the screen.

"That boy is my son." Tony's eyes widened comically.

"WHAT?" Thor took a deep breath, massaging his temples, and sat down on a work table. It creaked ominously, and Tony winced, but he didn't say anything. Even he knew that now was not the right time.

"A little over a decade ago I spent a great deal of time in Britain. Unlike my time in New Mexico it was voluntary and...significantly more discrete. This is due in large part to the fact that I mainly spent my time among the wizarding community." Tony blinked rapidly and had to fiercely bite his tongue from demanding more information because NOW WAS NOT THE TIME but wizarding community? WHAT? "I made friends there." Thor continued, seemingly oblivious to his friend's consternation. "I fell in love there. Her name was Lily and she was..." He shook his head. "Fiercely kind is the best way I can describe her. She was deeply intelligent, with a passion to learn everything that she could. I never once saw her allow an injustice to pass unanswered. Once she had decided that you were her friend, that was it." Thor let out a long sigh. "And she was beautiful. By the nine realms she was beautiful! With hair as fiery as her personality and eyes of the most piercing green." He sighed once more. "I courted her. I couldn't resist. I courted her and I made love to her." Tony's head shot up and he stared at Thor intently.

"You had a kid with her, and you're just checking in on him now?" He demanded shortly. He wasn't going to pass judgment on Thor for having a thing for Lily or for acting on it. By the sound of it his relationship with this Lily might actually have warranted being called an honest to god relationship. Thor certainly seemed more capable of remembering Lily than Tony was of remembering the important details of ninety five percent of the women and men who'd passed through his bed. So that he was fine with. But getting her pregnant and not sticking around? That...that was not okay. Tony had gotten a vasectomy young, and he still had insisted on using condoms in the pre Iron Man, pre committing wholesale to Pepper days because he didn't want kids. He just didn't. But if something had gone wrong, because nothing related to birth control was ever one hundred percent perfect, he would have taken care of the kid, or at least seen to their wellbeing. Regardless of what degree of involvement the mother(s) or the children wanted, he would have made damn sure that they were taken care of. Thor not doing any of that...that pushed his button. Thor shook his head slowly, but there was a distinct look of shame on his face, one that made Tony soften, just a bit.

"On Asgard there is an herb known as blightweed. It's the only thing known to be an effective method of birth control among gods. Short of surgery of course, but as the heir to the throne that wasn't an option for me. Chewing a leaf for the prescribed amount of time is supposed to render a male sterile for a week. I chewed twice the standard amount to make certain that nothing would happen." He gave Tony a sad look. "Even in the selfish and carefree state I used to live in, I never intended to leave a woman with my child uncared for. I'm not Zeus or Poseidon." Tony blinked, and his curiosity finally bubbled over.

"The Greek gods exist too?" He asked. Thor shrugged.

"They did. They had a civil war shortly before the collapse of the Roman Empire in which all but Ares was killed. Though it appears that Zeus managed to have a daughter before dying because of course he did." Tony shook his head.

"Okay, gotcha. Sorry, I had to ask. I have lots of questions, but the rest can wait." He took a deep breath and looked at Thor. "So, what's your plan? You've got a son, now what?" Thor took a deep, shaky breath and stared at the lab floor, studying it intently.

"I go to the address that you gave me. I apologize profusely to both Lily and Harry and beg for forgiveness. And then...then it's up to them where things go from there." Tony paused, then looked at the screen behind him with a frown.

"Uhm, it, uhm...it doesn't look like Lily's raising him Thor." Thor looked up sharply.

"What?"

"Yeah, I don't know why, Lily seems to have dropped off the map around the time *she* turned seventeen, not even street camera footage..." He trailed off as something occurred to him. "So, I know things are probably different in Asgard but..." Thor cut him off, realizing where this was going.

"Lily was eighteen when we courted. And in the wizarding community witches and wizards come of age when they're seventeen." Tony let out a small sigh of relief and nodded.

"Just wanted to check. But yeah, it looks like the kid's being raised by her sister." Thor stared at him in shock and a small amount of horror.

"Petunia?" Tony double checked the information and nodded.

"Yeah, that's the name." He looked at Thor. "Look, it's not that uncommon for single parents to give their kids up for adoption. This sister has a kid your son's age, maybe she wanted to give him his best chance, with someone who already had some experience but whom she could keep in easy contact with?" Thor shook his head and stood up quickly, pushing the table backwards with the force of his rising.

"No. Unless Petunia has changed drastically in the past decade, she is...Lily would never leave her son with her." He said shortly. "Something is very wrong." He turned and left quickly, JARVIS speeding up the elevators for him, having monitored the conversation.

Ten Minutes Later

Thor was halfway across the Atlantic when a rainbow aura enveloped him. "No! No no no!" Thor raged as the Bifrost brought him back to Asgard. He glared at Heimdall the minute he regained his footing. "Heimdall! Send me back to Midgard!" He demanded. The sentinel raised an eyebrow.

"Do you think I brought you here for my own amusement my prince?" He asked calmly.

"I don't care why you brought me back! Unless an army of Celestials has arrived to conquer Asgard, there is nothing here that is more important than what I was about to do!" Heimdall took a deep breath.

"Your son is fine Prince Thor." Thor's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth, but Heimdall continued. "It is my sworn duty to watch over all the members of the royal family of Asgard. ALL of them. I detect no immediate threat to the young prince. If I should see one arise, rest assured that I will alert you." Thor let out a long huff, but Heimdall's demeanor had a way of putting even his temper on hold.

"Why am I here?" He said finally, throwing his hands in the air.

"You are here, my son, because I asked Heimdall to bring you here." Thor turned around to find his father standing behind him, a sad look on his face. Odin gestured. "Walk with me." Thor frowned but did as he was beckoned. They left Heimdall's station and walked along the bridge in silence for a few moments before either spoke. "So, you've learned that you have a son." Odin said finally.

"You knew?" Thor demanded. "You knew and you never said?" Odin sighed.

"There were...complications. And in the scheme of things, you have not left him alone for very long." Thor stared at him in disbelief.

"In the scheme of things? That's your reason? Whatever happened to the lectures you and mother gave me to *not* be like the Greeks?" He demanded angrily. Odin sighed once more.

"What do you know about your son's living arrangements?" He asked finally. Thor blinked, surprised at the question. But, knowing that his father was not one for non-sequiturs, he decided to see where this was going.

"I know that he is being raised by Lily's sister Petunia." He said slowly. "That is one of the reasons I was traveling so quickly. I met her once, and I heard Lily's stories. They...have not given me a favorable opinion of her." Odin nodded.

"I did not tell you for fear of what you might do." He said. "Lily made you a better person, much like Jane has," He explained in response to Thor's quizzical look. "But you were rash back then, far more than you are now. And with power like yours..." He sighed and shook his head. "I was afraid of what might happen if I told you, of what you might do in your rage." Odin looked Thor squarely in the eye. "Lily is dead my son." Thor stared at him, wide eyed, and slowly sank down onto the ground, mouth working.

"I...I suspected." He said weakly. "Ever since Tony told me that Harry was living with Petunia. But I'd hoped..." he shook his head numbly. "I don't know if I can say that I loved Lily." He admitted shamefully. "I didn't try to visit her once in the past decade after we broke up... but to know that she's dead..." He looked up at his father. "Are you certain?" Odin nodded somberly.

"Very. She was murdered." That sparked something in Thor, quite literally as Power crackled in his eyes.

"By who?" He growled.

"Do you remember hearing about the Death Eaters?" Odin asked carefully. "The magical terrorists in Wizarding Britain?"

"Of course." Thor replied quickly. "They were hard to ignore." His face twisted. "Who killed her? Which one of them did so? And do they still live?"

"The leader of that particular rabble, one Voldemort, did the deed. And in a matter of speaking yes, though he is a mere wraith at the moment." Thor nodded slowly.

"I see. And the others? James, Remus, Sirius and Peter? Are they dead as well?" He had not been as close to the four young men as he had been with Lily, but he had considered them friends during his time on Midgard, and he liked to think that they had thought of him as a friend as well. Odin let out another heavy sigh.

"James and Peter are." He told Thor. "In the same day as Lily in fact. After you left James courted Lily, and eventually married her." Thor nodded, his mind finally making the connection to his son's surname. If nothing else he was glad to know that Lily had been taken care of, that she had not been left to raise a child alone, though it did little to ease his guilt. "As for the others, Sirius has been imprisoned and while Remus yet lives, his condition as a werewolf meant that the Wizarding Ministry forbade him from caring for Harry." Thor let out a growl and stood up.

"Is there anything else you should tell me?" He asked quietly, his mind racing.

"Your son...has not been well cared for." Odin told him, his face tight. "He is functional and reasonably healthy, but it would be a lie to say that his childhood has been a positive experience." Thor growled, lightning sparking in the sky of Asgard. Odin put a firm hand on his shoulder. "Go. Meet your son. Do justice to those who should have cared for him. But contain your temper. Do not kill them. If nothing else, your son will not thank you for it." Thor nodded curtly and turned, heading back to the Bifrost.

Author's Notes

Thank you for reading everybody! It means a lot to me.

Now, a few things never to be addressed. Firstly, the timeline. This story begins after Avengers 1, but before Age of Ultron. All the MCU movies that took place before Avengers 1 are canon in this universe. However, I am writing Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 out, as I believe that the Mandarin, and Malekith deserve better. Christopher Eccleston and Ben Kingsley do too for that matter. Also I just really dislike Iron Man 3. That being said, Ant Man still happens, more or less in the same way, and the facts of Winter Soldier (particularly the fact that HYDRA is hiding in SHIELD) are still the same, though the events will differ. I have not decided how much of the DCEU will be imported. Wonder Woman will obviously be. Man of Steel and Batman V Superman will not. Still on the fence about Suicide Squad. How much of Universal's Dark Universe past the Mummy(2017) will be used is up in the air, just depending on how much I like those movies.

Also, unlike in the MCU Thor and the other denizens of Asgard *are* supernatural beings through and through, like they are in the comics. Partly because I like it better, and partly because that was the nature of the gods in Wonder Woman and presumably the Dark Universe, and it didn't seem right to have the Greek and Egyptian gods be gods but the Asgardians be advanced aliens.

Now, onto certain issues with the story. Why does Set speak of Zeus as though he were still alive? Simply put, Set was banished a few thousand years before the Greek gods were killed and just doesn't know that Zeus is dead. Yes, Odin thinks that Peter Pettigrew is dead. Even Odin and Heimdall miss things. Moreover, they were not watching the actions of the Marauders, sans James, very closely as their only real interest was in making sure Harry didn't die. As for why they didn't intervene on that Halloween night? Thor and Loki were off having adventures and Heimdall was more focused on them since Harry *should* have been perfectly safe. Why didn't Thor ask why Sirius is in prison? He's a little preoccupied at the moment, and his main concern is Harry. Also, we were rather getting bogged down in exposition and, frankly, if you're reading this story the backstory probably wasn't news to you. Rest assured that the issue of Sirius and Peter will be resolved in time.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry's eyes widened and he sat straight up on the garden bench as the sound of thunder filled the air and a column of rainbow aura filled the air. It disappeared a moment later, leaving him a sight almost as unusual. Thor stood in front of him. The AVENGER Thor. The GOD OF THUNDER Thor. A small part of him noted that there was an odd runic pattern literally burned into the previously perfect lawn under Thor's feet and took a certain degree of glee at this fact. (A second, smaller part of him absently noted a pair of large green eyes disappear from the hedges with a small pop, though this was dismissed as his eyes playing tricks on him. They were, after all, still watering from that light show.) Mostly though, his attention was drawn by the man in front of him.

Thor was instantly recognizable of course, what with his long hair and short beard, and of course his hammer, though curiously he was dressed in Muggle clothing. Harry supposed that this made sense, if nothing else he doubted that metal armor was very comfortable as casual wear, but it was still strange to see the GOD OF THUNDER in jeans and a red flannel. Thor cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly. "This is Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, yes?" He asked Harry. "I haven't landed in the wrong yard, have I?" Harry nodded dumbly for a few seconds before finding his voice.

"Yes. Yes it is." He said, trying to process the fact that Thor had arrived here one hundred percent intentionally, that this wasn't an amazing accident. Thor nodded quickly, shifting on his feet, one hand drumming anxiously on the head of his hammer.

"And..." He took a deep breath, then focused his gaze on Harry. It was a rather warm and kind gaze, tinged with...fear? "Are you Harry Potter?" Harry's jaw dropped. He'd known, on some level, that this visit had something to do with him (well he'd suspected at least) if only because he couldn't possibly imagine what any of the Dursleys could have done to warrant THOR'S attention, but it was one thing to suspect something and another thing entirely to have it confirmed.

"Yes. Yes I am." He managed to squeak upon finally regaining his composure. Thor nodded briskly and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything further the back door slammed open. Due to his stature it was hard for Harry to see past Thor, but he could vaguely make out Uncle Vernon behind the blonde man.

"What the blazes is going on out here?" Vernon demanded. Rather than answer him, Thor waved his hand and the door was slammed shut by a gust of wind just as violently as it had been opened. And, judging by the way the doorknob jiggled but the door remained closed, he'd done something to keep it that way. Without a wand. Thor clenched his jaw and shook his head briefly before refocusing on Harry.

"May I sit?" He asked cautiously, gesturing at the bench. Harry nodded quickly and scooted to the side, making room. Thor smiled briefly before sitting down gingerly next to him. "So..." he said, his voice reeking of awkwardness. "I'm Thor Odinson." Harry blinked. "But of course you already knew that." There was a pause. "I suppose you're wondering why I'm here, and why I know your name." Harry nodded.

"Just a bit, yeah." He said with a slight smile, which Thor returned before it vanished just as quickly.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just come right out with it. I'm your father." Harry stared at him in shock.

"I...you...what?" He demanded.

"I'm very old Harry. Not by the standards of my people, but by the standards of Midgard I am very old indeed. I have have visited this planet many times." He sighed. "One of those times was thirteen years ago. I was bored of Asgard and the realms closest to it. But I had not been to Midgard in close to a century. So I came down and spent quite some time among the Wizarding community here in Britain. It was during this time that I met your mother, Lily. We courted, we were happy, but, eventually, we broke up." He shook his head bitterly. "I left in a hurry, upset and offended, and I did not look back." Thor wasn't looking at Harry anymore, instead staring intently at the lawn. "I did not know that she was pregnant when I left. If I had, I swear to you that I would NEVER have left you alone. But I didn't know. And now that I do, and I'm here, all I can do is beg your forgiveness." Harry sat in silence, processing this information. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be. He *couldn't* be the son of Thor. It was one thing to accept that he was a wizard, but he'd grown up *knowing* that he was an orphan, that his parents were dead. And it wasn't as if he'd ever called down lightning any of the times he'd been in danger. Unlike when Hagrid had arrived with similarly startling news, there was no evidence that Harry could look back on to make sense of this.

But...why would Thor lie? He was fairly certain that this was Thor after all. The Twins would not play such a cruel prank on him, and while he had no doubt that Draco would be *willing* to, they couldn't use magic outside of school. As he struggled to come to grips with all of this information, something occurred to him, and he stared at Thor, anger starting to bubble up. But not at being left alone for all this time. At least, not that specifically. "Where were you when my parents died?" He demanded. "Okay, you broke up with mum. Fine. But you were on Earth when Voldemort was alive! Why didn't you kill him? He was evil! You fight evil!" Thor gave a deeply bitter sigh.

"That was why your mother and I broke up actually." He admitted. "She was never one to sit back and let others fight Lily. And she would not accept that I could not fight alongside her. For my father, the king of Asgard Odin, declared that humanity was to make their own way. That we were not to interfere in the affairs of mortals any longer. Visits and interactions were permitted, but only so long as they were discrete. Fighting alongside them, as we once had, was expressly forbidden." He sighed once more. "I have disobeyed my father many times, before and since. But I have never regretted obeying him so fiercely as I do now." Harry looked at him with a frown, but as he did so he registered the look of sorrow on Thor's face, the defeated slump of his posture, the sadness in his voice, and realized that he was entirely sincere. A less kind person would have ignored this in favor of their own pain. Or perhaps they would have taken advantage of it. But Harry was neither cruel nor selfish.

"I forgive you." He said softly. "I..." he trailed off, unable to quite find the words necessary. "I forgive you." Thor gave him a weak smile, some of the pain leaving his countenance as he heard Harry's simple words. There was a moment of silence as father and son sat beside each other, reunited at last. Finally however, Harry broke it. "What happens now?"

"Well, that's entirely up to you." Thor said gently. "You're attending Hogwarts I assume?" Harry nodded. "That means we have what, two months before the new term starts?" Harry nodded again. "Well then, we have two options as I see it. The first is that you can stay here, and I will visit you every day, barring any alien invasions or similar global catastrophes. Or, I could leave for five minutes, obtain transportation from Tony, and you could move in with me to Avengers' Tower for the holidays." Harry's eyes widened. He'd been so caught up in the revelation that Thor (THOR) was his father that the possibility of getting away from the Dursleys hadn't even registered. But now that it had.

"Move in with you!" He said quickly. "Please? Please please please?" Thor blinked, then laughed and tousled Harry's messy red hair.

"Well, far be it to deny such a fervent request from my son. I do have twelve years of birthdays to make up for if nothing else." He paused and looked at Harry, then at the Dursley house. "Though I must ask...I met Petunia once. She did not leave a favorable impression. How has she treated you?" Harry opened his mouth, closed it, paused, then opened it again.

Five minutes later

Clint looked up from where he was perched on an outcropping of Avengers Tower, doing a crossword puzzle, as Thor landed on the pad. "Hey Thor!" He called down. "Where you been? Fury wants to know if you know anything about an extremely localized thunder storm in the UK." Thor gave him a look.

"Come inside please Clint. I have something I need to tell you and the others." Clint blinked at Thor's tone but nodded and quickly tied a rope around the support, rappelling down as Thor entered the den. As he did so Natasha looked up from her tablet.

"Thor?" She asked carefully. "Do you happen to know why a tower made of blood red sandstone in the shape of a jackal's head has appeared in Iraq?" Thor sighed.

"Set was never one for subtlety." He said simply. Natasha frowned, but Thor waved a hand. "It should be harmless, so long as nobody attempts to attack it." He assured her as Clint walked in and closed the door that led to the pad. "I will explain what I suspect it to be in time, but there are other issues that must be addressed first." The two spies looked at each other, having a nonverbal conversation that ended when Clint shrugged, and both followed Thor to the sectional, Natasha lounging on the chaise while Clint perched himself on the back next to her. As they settled in and Thor began to pace, the elevator dinged and Tony ushered a concerned looking Steve and Bruce out.

"Is everything okay Thor?" Steve asked as the remaining three sat down. Thor took a deep breath and shook his head.

"No, it is very much not okay my friend." He said with a sigh. "As Tony already knows, because I enlisted his aid last night, I have just discovered that I have a son." There was a moment of stunned silence. Clint's jaw dropped, Bruce's eyes grew huge, Steve was blinking rapidly, and Natasha had gone stiff. "I did not know that he existed before last night, or I would have acted sooner." Thor said swiftly, his hands twisting anxiously. "That is where I have been this morning, speaking to him. We talked at length. He wishes to come and live here, to be with me." He paused, and looked at Tony. "I'm sorry, I suppose I should have checked with you first, given that this is your tower Tony..." he began, but the shorter man just waved him off.

"Don't worry about it big guy. I'm not exactly hurting for space. Me casa es su casa." He paused, then asked carefully, "You find out what happened to the mom?" Thor's face turned stormy for a moment.

"She was murdered some eleven years ago." He said shortly. "Harry, my son," he added quickly, realizing that he hadn't named the boy to the others besides Tony yet "was raised by his aunt and uncle who were...less than acceptable guardians." Clint made an understanding noise.

"Hence the rainstorm?" Thor nodded shortly.

"Quite."

"You said you didn't know that...Harry existed until last night." Bruce said slowly. "How'd you find out?" The others all looked at Thor curiously.

"Set paid a visit to my room last night." He explained. Tony made a strangled noise but managed to refrain from making any sexual jokes, which Thor decided to count as a victory. "He wanted to ask a favor," another strangled noise from Tony "with regards to his daughter." That proved to be too much for Tony, and he opened his mouth, only for Natasha to jab him in the ribs and Steve to give him a stern look. "Which leads me to the two favors I must ask of you." Thor continued, valiantly ignoring Tony. "Set asked me to take care of his daughter for him." Natasha arched an eyebrow at that, so Thor continued. "Set, as you may or may not know, is the Egyptian god of Chaos. As such he has fallen out of favor with my father, who is the strongest of all the Pantheon elders, and has been banished from Earth. He took a great risk visiting me last night. And so, if it is acceptable to you, I wish to honor my promise and take her in in addition to my son." There was a long moment of silence as the others processed this.

"Can she be trusted?" Natasha asked bluntly, cutting to the heart of the matter.

"I do not know." Thor replied frankly. "I have never met her. According to Set, she has been hibernating for the last five thousand years after an attempt on her life." Tony blinked rapidly, his scientific mind raving at the idea of getting to talk to a literal ancient Egyptian. "That tower you mentioned?" Thor directed at Natasha. "I suspect it to be a fortress and a beacon, created by Set to protect his daughter and ensure that we could locate her. As such, I was hoping that we could perhaps split into two groups to bring these two children home."

"Couldn't you just fly your son here?" Tony asked. "Or use the rainbow tube thing?" Thor shook his head.

"My son has a pet and belongings that would be too cumbersome to carry at the same time as him. Moreover, I would not like to risk carrying a twelve year old child across the Atlantic. And the Bifrost cannot send us from one part of Midgard to another. It requires a stopover in Asgard, and I do not wish to overwhelm my son." Tony nodded acceptance of this point, so Thor continued. "Tony, Bruce, I would like you to accompany me to retrieve Harry." Bruce looked at him in surprise.

"Why me?" He asked, surprised.

"I have two reasons. One, Set's daughter is located in Iraq. Given what I gather the situation is like in that area, it does not seem like an ideal place for you to visit, particularly as I do not know her temperament and how she will react to visitors." Bruce nodded in acceptance. "And more personally, I will need your calming influence my friend, if I am to meet with Harry's erstwhile guardians once more and not do serious harm to their persons."

"What about me?" Tony asked with a grin. Thor clapped him on the shoulder.

"You my friend, know how to fly a quinjet." He said wryly. That got a bark of laughter from Clint and a pout from Tony.

"And you want us to go get this daughter of Set?" Steve asked. Thor nodded.

"Between you and Natasha I have no doubt in your ability to handle whatever this young woman's temperament may be. And Clint is our best pilot, which given the active war zone nature of the region will be quite helpful." The trio nodded their acceptance. Thor looked at them all with a warm smile. "Thank you. I could not ask for better friends than you."

"Well, what are waiting for?" Tony asked briskly, clapping his hands to ward off 'the feelings'. "Let's go! I wanna meet mini Thor and the living Mummy!"

Author's Notes

Thank you for reading everybody! I really appreciate it!

So, yeah. Next chapter will feature bringing Harry and Ahmanet to the Tower. It might also feature Thor meeting with Diana, but I'm not positive about that. This chapter was supposed to feature the introduction of Ahmanet to the story and Harry arriving at the Tower, but things got away from me and ran over long. By my standards at least.

Also, you may have noticed that I described Harry as having red hair, not black. Simply put, given that Harry isn't James' biological son (tough he still cared for Harry very much) I decided it wouldn't make sense for Harry to so closely resemble him. So I gave him Lily's hair color in addition to her eyes.

Please review, and let me know if you have questions or concerns!


	3. Chapter 3

Tony let out a low whistle as he set the quinjet carefully down on the asphalt outside the Dursley house. A thick, dark, heavy cloud hung over the house, and only that house. From it poured a seemingly endless torrent of rain in sheets so thick that even from the street Tony could barely see the house, and couldn't make out anything through the windows. "You don't do things by halves, do you big guy?" He asked as he got up from the pilot's chair.

"They made him sleep in a broom closet until he was eleven." Thor growled as he stared out the windshield at the house. "He's been cooking and cleaning for them since he was old enough to hold a rag or see over the stove. They deny him food as a punishment, often for days at a time. They allow his aunt's dog to chase and attack him, and their son to do the same. I consider the fact that their house still stands an act of restraint on my part." Tony stared at him, then shook his head.

"Jesus. What kind of boarding school lets a kid return to a place like that?" He demanded. Thor sighed.

"My son did not think to tell the faculty. He felt that given the fact that no adult ever laid hands on him, his situation was not so bad. Also, I suspect that he didn't wish to give those who would bully him ammunition."

"That sounds like a twelve year old." Bruce agreed as he finished undoing his seat belts and walked over to the others. "I assume you'll be having words with his teachers?" Thor nodded curtly.

"Indeed I will." He said before turning and heading briskly towards the ramp, followed by Bruce and Tony. "But that is a task for another day. Today I simply wish to get my son from here."

The Dursleys were, needless to say, unhappy to see Thor and company. "Oi!" Vernon snapped, stomping forward and, in a fit of astounding bravery, jabbing Thor in the chest with a finger. "What have you done to the weather?" He demanded. "Do you have any idea what damage you're doing to our house and yard?"

"I imagine it's doing quite a bit of damage to your lawn and shrubbery." Thor replied. "As for your house, I have enchanted the rain to ensure that it does not erode your foundations, nor will it impact the homes of your neighbors. From what my son has told me, you value the appearance of normalcy above all else. Good luck accomplishing that with a perpetual storm surrounding your home." He smirked and headed for the stairs, leaving Vernon gaping as Tony and Bruce waited by the door.

Bruce looked around the house critically. "You know, is it just me or does this house look more like one of SHIELD's safe houses than an actual family home?" He asked musingly. Tony paused, then gave the place a second look.

"Oh wow. You're right, this place is *too* clean. Like, surgical theater room clean. Actually, I'm pretty sure that the lab I installed my second arc reactor in was dirtier than this. I mean, the first one got put in in an even dirtier place, but that was a cave, so that's a given." He frowned and arched an eyebrow at Vernon. "What's your secret walrus man? Black magic, brownies, miniature robots?" Vernon spluttered indignantly.

"B...black magic? Brownies? What sort of man do you take me for?" He demanded. Tony shrugged.

"Based on what Thor told us his kid said? An asshole." Vernon started to turn purple. "I mean seriously, keeping him in the broom cupboard when you've got two extra bedrooms? Really?"

"If nothing else he's your nephew." Bruce said softly. "Isn't blood supposed to be thicker than water?"

"We didn't ask for that burden!" Vernon roared. "He was dropped off on our doorstep one night. Nobody asked us if we wanted him! If we were willing! I'm a normal man sir! I've worked for everything with my own two hands! And I will not be insulted like this in my own home!" Tony looked at Bruce, ignoring Vernon.

"Left him on the doorstep in the middle of the night? Didn't Thor say that the kid's mom got killed on Halloween?" Bruce nodded and Tony scowled, running a hand through his hair. "Someone left a one year old outside all night, in October/November, in Britain? That...wow, what the hell? They're lucky the kid didn't die of pneumonia." Bruce pursed his lips and nodded again. "Someone's got some explaining to do." Tony muttered as Thor walked down just then with Harry. Harry carried a small satchel and a snowy owl in a cage. Thor, on the other hand, was empty handed and looked rather angry. He pushed past a still purple Vernon and bent down in front of the padlocked cupboard. Reaching out, he tore off the padlock as if it were tissue paper, tossing it aside, before pulling out a trunk and a large cauldron. He hefted them both up, letting them rest on his shoulders, and brushed past Vernon once more before smiling down at Harry.

"Come along Harry." He said gently. Harry nodded and quickly followed his father, only giving his uncle a quick glance before walking out the door, Bruce and Tony close behind. The rain briefly parted, giving the four a clear path back to the quinjet before closing up again. Tony let out a low, appreciative whistle.

"You know, I don't think I'll ever get used to weather manipulation on such a precise scale." He said before grabbing Harry's hand and shaking it warmly. "Tony Stark kid, good to meet you. Welcome to the family." Harry just stared at him, wide eyed and his mouth open. Tony coughed awkwardly. "Right. Well I'd better get this bird in the air, we're blocking traffic." He said briskly, ignoring Bruce as the other man rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry about him, he's not so good with...emotions." Bruce told Harry as they sat down before holding out his hand. "I'm Bruce by the way. Bruce Banner." Harry tentatively shook his hand. Things were happening rather fast, and he was having difficulty processing it all. Bruce, understanding this, didn't push him, simply shooting the young boy a quick smile and leaning back in his seat. Thor stepped briefly away to speak to Tony.

"Any word from the others yet?" He asked softly. Tony shook his head.

"Nothing so far. GPS says they're still on route." He paused, glancing over his shoulder briefly at Harry before looking back at Thor. "So, uhm, it's been a while since I've been around kids but...I don't think that he's supposed to be that skinny." He said slowly. "And given what you said about the dog and his cousin I'm thinking it would be better to get him to a doctor sooner rather than later. Think he'd be okay with Helen giving him a check up?" Thor frowned.

"I will ask." He said finally after some consideration. "And Tony? Thank you. You are a good friend, and a good man." He patted Tony on the shoulder and sat down next to his son.

Thirty Five Minutes Later

Clint cocked his head to the side as he lowered the quinjet down what he felt was a reasonably safe distance from the tower/head, triple checking to make sure that all of the weapons systems were down. Unsafe Iraq might be, but the quinjet had more than decent armor, and between a protective father who happened to be a god and insurgents, he'd rather handle the latter. Still... "Nat?" He called back over his shoulder. "You told Fury what was going on, right?" Nat looked up from where she'd been inspecting her 'widow bites'.

"Yeah, why?" She asked with a frown.

"It looks like someone already beat us here." He said, gesturing at a quinjet parked far closer to the tower than them. Steve sighed.

"At least their jet is intact." He said, sounding rather exasperated at this development. "That's a good sign, right?" Natasha shrugged.

"Depends on what kind of defenses Set put up. They might only target organic material." She pointed out. "Though I don't think this was Fury." Steve looked at her, and she half shrugged. "Fury's paranoid, but he trusts us reasonably well. And as he demonstrated when he let Thor take the Tesseract, he's not one to needlessly challenge gods. He wouldn't try to send a team to investigate something like this, something that wasn't an immediate and active threat, not when he knew we were on the way and he doesn't know what the thing's capabilities are." Steve mulled it over, then nodded.

"Fair enough. But if it's not SHIELD, who else has a quinjet?" Clint shrugged as he stood up from the pilot's seat, now that he was reasonably sure they weren't about to come under fire in the next two minutes.

"World Security Council." He pointed out. "This seems like their kind of move. Maybe the Russians. Either way, we'll find out when we get in." He said, heading for the ramp. Natasha frowned.

"Uhm, Clint?"

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" She asked, gesturing at the bow and quiver still racked on the wall of the quinjet. Clint just snorted.

"Right, like I'm going to walk heavily armed into something a *god* built to protect his baby girl." He said, rolling his eyes. "Look, Steve's shield will probably fly, and maybe your bites will since they look like bracelets, but nobody has ever mistaken bringing a bow somewhere as a peaceful gesture." Natasha frowned, looking at Clint intently, then nodded, removing her bites and a variety of knives that Steve hadn't realized she even had on her person. He shot her another quizzical look, and she shrugged again.

"I've learned to trust Clint's judgment when it comes to how parental instincts work." She said simply, stowing her weapons in her personal compartment. Steve looked at them both, then sighed and took his shield off his back and set it down as well.

"Alright, lets go." He said, not sounding thrilled at entering unarmed but accepting the spies' point.

The walk from the quinjet to the jackal head tower was uneventful, though all three Avengers noticed an abundance of scorch marks and dropped weaponry. "Either that quinjet has Destroyer tech on it, or that is some impressive defenses." Clint said, his eyes scanning the tower. "You guys even see a scratch in that thing?" Steve paused, scanning it, the shook his head.

"Doesn't look like it. Either whoever left these weapons didn't manage to get a shot off, or that's not just painted sandstone." He said. Natasha hummed.

"I bet SHIELD would love a sample of this stuff..."

"Please don't go trying to chisel some off of that thing Nat." Clint pleaded. "Or at least let me get far enough away to not be considered a threat."

"I'm not an idiot Clint." Natasha huffed. "It was just an observation." Steve gave Clint a concerned look.

"Are you alright Clint? You seem a little on edge." Clint sighed.

"I've seen a lot of shit Steve. A LOT. I've fought big foot, robots, aliens, werewolves...you name it. But the last time I took on a god when he hadn't been worn down by the Hulk first? Didn't go so well. So yeah, I'm a little nervous." Steve nodded grimly. He remembered his own bout with Loki all too well.

"Fair point." He said as they came up to the doors, which were large, ornately carved and, of course, tightly shut. Steve looked around for some sign of a door knob or other typical method of opening a door, but found nothing.

"Any ideas?" Natasha asked. Steve hesitated, then knocked politely on the stone. Almost immediately a small portion of the doors, just large enough for Steve to squeeze through, opened up.

"You've got to be kidding me." Clint muttered. Steve shrugged and stepped through, the other two close behind.

The room they entered was nothing short of palatial. Murals of gold and precious stones adorned every wall, pillars of marble stretched up to the ceiling, sheer silk curtains closed off every doorway, and in the center of it all was a large pond, lilies floating serenely on the surface. In direct contrast to the beauty of the room however, were the six corpses strewn around. Natasha bent down, examining one of them. "Judging by the knife, the gun, and the clothes, definitely insurgent." She reported.

"How the hell did they get in here?" Clint demanded. "They knock too?" Steve nodded at the doorway directly across from the main one, through which he could make out two figures sitting at a table.

"Lets go ask."

What they found was not precisely what they'd expected. Admittedly it couldn't be said exactly what they'd been expecting. But all things considered, all three could confidently say that they *hadn't* expected to find a young woman with skin that was pale to an almost ludicrous degree lounging regally (if one could do such a thing) and staring intently at an older blonde woman as said older blonde woman explained the intricacies of English grammar. Natasha blinked once, then arched an eyebrow. "I should have guessed. The quinjet outside is yours I assume Lorraine?" The blonde pursed her lips.

"Agent 10 please, I'm on the clock." She said briskly in a British accent of some kind, though Steve couldn't place the exact region. Natasha snorted.

"You here investigating for the Council, Fury, or Pierce?" She asked. Lorraine smirked.

"Who says it can only be one of them?" The young woman was following the exchange with interest, and Steve was startled to see that she had double irises in each eye. Now that he was only a few feet from her he could also make out tattoos curving up and down her body and face, which resembled hieroglyphs but weren't quite either.

"You're Set's daughter I presume?" He asked when her eyes briefly passed over him. She paused, examining him intently, then nodded.

"Yes. I am Princess Ahmanet. Once the heir to the throne of Egypt, though my divine father tells me that it would be unwise to seek my throne at present." Clint snorted, and Ahmanet's eyes whipped to lock onto him. Clint held up his hands.

"Sorry, sorry your highness." He said quickly. "That was just a bit of an understatement. The current leadership of Egypt is...let's just say they're anti polytheism at the moment." Ahmanet stared at him in silence, then nodded curtly.

"That was the impression I was given, yes." She said simply. "My divine father gave me the...basics, and Agent 10 has been quite helpful in giving me a more thorough understanding."

"You mind telling me what happened to those men in the foyer?" Natasha asked bluntly. Ahmanet cocked her head to the side, seemingly confused.

"The entrance hall dear." Lorraine said gently. Ahmanet nodded her understanding and...blushed.

"I needed to regain my strength." She said, her eyes moving from one Avenger to another. "The past millennia left me in a...weakened state. Little more than a corpse. I needed life energy and my divine father provided." She paused and added, somewhat defensively "He told me that they were criminals and bandits, that would not be missed."

"Relax, we're all soldiers here." Clint said quickly when Steve frowned. "We've all done things we're not proud of." He hesitated. "That's not going to need to be a regular thing, is it?" He asked quickly. "Sucking the life out of people? Cause if it is, that might be a little awkward." Ahmanet shook her head curtly.

"No. I have regained my strength and regenerated in full. Any future injuries can be dealt with in a more...standard manner." She then cocked her head once more. "You have come to bring me to the new dwelling place my divine father spoke of, yes?" Natasha nodded and Ahmanet frowned. "I was under the impression that the god known as Thor would be retrieving me." She said bluntly, her chin tilting up in challenge.

"Yes, well, we're friends of Thor's..." Steve began.

"I know who you are." Ahmanet said, cutting him off. "My divine father gave me images to go along with the facts he delivered. I was not asking for your identities, I was asking where this Thor is."

"Getting his son." Natasha said flatly. Ahmanet blinked, startled.

"Oh." She said softly. "I...familial loyalty is a good thing." She finally said. "Very well. Shall we go?" Natasha nodded, then turned.

"See you next time Agent 10." She said over her shoulder, a only vaguely detectable edge to her voice.

"She is coming with us." Ahmanet told them. It was not a question, but a statement delivered by a member of royalty. "I will require a tutor and aide. I have chosen her." Natasha paused. Before anyone else could say anything, Lorraine spoke up, her voice wry.

"Liaison to a demigod? I'm fairly certain I can spin that as a positive to my superiors." She looked down at Ahmanet. "However, rules are rules. By your leave your majesty, I will need to tell those who give me my orders of your wishes." Ahmanet paused, then nodded.

"Very well. But make it clear that I will be most displeased if they do not comply." She said eventually. Lorraine smirked.

"Don't worry, I will." She said before turning and heading for the door. "Clint, Captain." She said as she passed, giving each polite nods. "Natasha." This was delivered with a smirking half curtsy.

"Bad blood there?" Steve asked once the blonde had left. Clint sniggered.

"She has more kills than me by one." Natasha muttered petulantly, giving Clint a dirty look. Steve blinked, looking like a deer in headlights, thrown off by the idea that Natasha was capable of getting caught up in a rivalry. Ahmanet cleared her throat impatiently.

"May we leave now?"

Author's Notes

Thank you for still reading this everybody!

I uhm...I kind of saw Atomic Blonde for my birthday and...let's just say it left a big impression on me. Particularly Charlize Theron's chemistry with Sofia Boutella. So...yeah. Lorraine Broughton is in this now. _ That's the last crossover element I'll use though, I promise. This plot is going to be busy enough without me grafting a *sixth* universe into it.

And as for where Petunia and Dudley were when Thor and company went to retrieve Harry? I don't know, running errands or something.

...look, I'm sorry, I tried to figure out a way to work them in but it never felt right! They just felt extraneous, particularly Dudley. Maybe they'll pop up later, maybe not. I confess that having a confrontation with the Dursleys wasn't a large priority of mine. The meat of the story is going to be the interactions of our three young gods (young so far as gods go) and the ramifications of their existence becoming public. There's a thousand and one stories out there where those who care about Harry chew out the Dursleys or punish them (Arthur Weasley confronting them in the sadly abandoned 'A Little Light Reading' is one of my favorites) and I wasn't eager to retread such old ground. Maybe I'll come back and edit in Petunia. Maybe I'll even show Thor saying more than a paragraph of dialogue to them. Who knows?

...sorry


	4. Chapter 4

Thor paced nervously behind the glass, casting glances at the medical bay on each lap. Tony sighed. "Calm down Thor." He urged. "I know that he's your son and everything but relax. You know Helen, she's good, we can trust her. And Bruce is acting as nurse. Everything is going to be okay." Thor shook his head.

"I know that here my friend." He said, tapping the top of his head. "This is another matter however." He finished, tapping his heart. Tony sighed.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I've had some stressful moments when Rhodey got injured out in the field." He commiserated. "What you need is something to take your mind off of things. Like say, answering my questions." Thor snorted and smirked at Tony.

"So I'm to believe that my sating your boundless curiosity is for my benefit alone?" He asked dryly. Tony smirked back.

"Of course. What else would it be?" Thor shook his head fondly and sat down.

"Very well. What do you wish to know?" Tony rubbed his hands together eagerly.

"You said Zeus had a daughter before he got killed? Where is she? She anybody I'd know? Cause if you told me that Joan Jett is secretly a demigod I would not be surprised." Thor chuckled.

"I don't believe so. But I'm afraid that Set did not give her name, and as he informed me of Harry's existence almost immediately after I did not ask. All I know is that she has been living amongst mortals for close to a century." He paused, frowning. "I'm not entirely clear on how that is possible, given that Zeus died almost two millennia ago, though there are places in which time stands still or moved so slowly it might as well not at all."

"Alright, we'll put a pin in that one." Tony said slowly. "How many sets of gods are out there?" Thor shrugged.

"I'm not aware of all of humanity's religions, but I would imagine all of them, or at least most." He frowned. "Though I concede that I'm not sure if the Abrahamic religions are all worshipping the same god in different ways or if there are three pantheons of very similar gods who have similar moralities." He said carefully. "We don't interact much outside of special occasions. Fights between pantheons can be costly, to us and even more so to the Earth. And as each of us has our own culture and values, gatherings not tightly controlled by ritual and etiquette can become...volatile." Tony nodded in understanding.

"Good point. We've got quite a few countries like that down here too." He said. "So...you told Jane about the kid yet?" Thor's eyes widened and he groaned. "So...that's a no then I take it." Thor nodded and sighed.

"No. No I have not." He said weakly. "I've been trying to handle this all one thing at a time. I don't wish to leave my son's side, but nor do I wish to tell Jane in any manner but in person." Tony nodded in understanding.

"Good instincts." He said, patting Thor on the shoulder. "Leave it to me big guy." He quickly left the waiting room. Before Thor could ask for clarification on what Tony was planning (something that always wise to do with regards to Tony) Helen stepped out of the examination room.

"How is he?" Thor asked the second she shut the door. Helen sighed, her face tight.

"His eyesight has definitely been impacted by malnutrition." She said. "It's not hereditary. He's got some scars too, and a break in his arm that didn't heal perfectly, but well enough to not cause any issues. Physically he's fine, aside from his eyes, and only time and good nutrition will help that." She paused. "Emotionally though...look, he's handling himself fairly well, and I admit it's not my field but...I highly recommend therapy for him. An upbringing like that doesn't *not* leave scars, even if they're not immediately obvious." Thor nodded in understanding. Asgard may have been a warrior culture, but they understand the necessity of mental healing well. After all, between the war with the Dark Elves and the war with the Frost Giants there were plenty of Asgardian veterans, many of whom had PTSD. Even if the culture of Asgard had been a brutal and uncaring one, like some depicted, leaving them in a state where they were likely to be triggered to either rage or catatonia was impractical at the very least.

"Thank you Helen. I shall speak with the others, see if they have any recommendations." She nodded and headed back into the bay to gather her things and let Harry know he was clear to go.

Ten Minutes Later

Thor was sitting in the living area of his floor in Avengers Tower, talking to Harry, when the elevator pinged. Thor glanced over, then stared as Jane walked out. "Jane!" He said, quickly standing up and striding over to her. "I thought you said you were in Australia studying some disturbances at Ayers Rock? How did you return so quickly?" Jane raised an eyebrow, and Thor nodded at the obvious answer. "Of course, Tony." She smiled up at him.

"He said it was either this or pelt you with his questions about a...Wizarding community?" She said, raising an eyebrow. "And that while the second would make him feel better, it wouldn't help you." Jane leaned in "I'm pretty sure we broke the sound barrier he was in such a hurry to get me here to you." She added. Thor blinked.

"It looks like I owe Tony a great deal once more." He said thoughtfully. He shook his head and gently took Jane's hand, leading her over to the couch where Harry was sitting. Jane's eyes widened in tandem with Harry's and they stared at each other. Thor took a deep breath. "Jane, this is my son, Harry Potter. Harry, this is my...girlfriend, Doctor Jane Foster." Jane's eyes snapped from Harry to Thor and back again. A million and one questions raced through her mind, but one look at the tension in Harry's eyes pushed them back. They could wait. This child came first. She held out her hand and gave him a warm smile.

"Hello Harry." She said. There was a brief moment of hesitation, then Harry took her hand.

"Hello." He said shyly, shaking her hand. Thor let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Neither had rejected the other on sight. That was good. He could work with this. Harry's eyes moved from his father to Jane and back. "Could I go explore the Tower?" He asked, realizing that they needed time to talk. Thor's face twisted in concern, but he nodded.

"Of course. But don't go any further down please. My floor is the last of the residential floors. Beneath us are the office and laboratory floors, and I don't know many of those who work there." Harry nodded with the vague absentness of a child being told to be careful and hugged him before heading off to the elevator. Once the doors were firmly shut, Jane whirled to stare at Thor.

"SON?!" Thor sighed and gently guided her to sit next to him on the couch.

At The Same Time

Harry looked at the buttons and tried to decide what floor to visit first. He wished the buttons had descriptions of what was on each floor rather than just numbers. "Do you require assistance Master Harry?" A cultured British voice asked. Harry jumped a good foot in the air.

"Who said that?" He asked, looking around. He didn't see anybody, nor did he see a TV screen or even a portrait. Did the Tower have ghosts too?

"I am JARVIS. I'm an artificial intelligence created by Mr. Stark to serve as assistant, sounding board, security, nanny, and whatever else he, and by extension now the members of the Avengers and their loved ones, require. Do you require assistance?" Harry paused, processing this. Had this occurred before his time at Hogwarts heaven knows how he'd have reacted, but after a year in a literal magic school he felt rather more open minded and ready to accept outlandish things.

"Well, I think Th...Dad and Jane need to talk alone for a bit." He said slowly. He was having trouble remembering that he had a family now. He'd gone too long not having anyone to call Dad to easily flow into calling Thor such, but he was working on it. "So I thought I'd look around the Tower. But I don't want to bother anybody..."

"Ah, I see." JARVIS said. "Let me check the cameras for a moment." There was a pause. "Sir is in the R&D department trying to distract himself from pelting your father with questions. Doctor Banner is studying some papers in the medical bay." There was another pause. "However, Captain Rogers, Agents Barton and Romanoff, and the daughter of Set have just arrived in the hanger bay. If you like, I could ask if now would be a good time to visit with them." Harry did a double take.

"Daughter of Set? Like, the Egyptian god Set?" He asked in disbelief.

"Indeed." JARVIS said lightly. "Captain Rogers says that she would very much like to meet you." Harry took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah, lets go." The elevator swiftly began moving upward the minute the words were out of his mouth. Harry blinked when the doors opened. That was the fastest moving elevator he'd ever been on. Not that he'd been on many elevators but still. He walked out of the elevator, looking around in interest at the large and spacious hanger.

"Oh, hey kid!" A man in black and dark purple called cheerfully, waving at Harry. Harry blinked and waved back hesitantly. "The name's Clint, good to meet you."

"Harry." He said back. Clint nodded, then looked over his shoulder.

"So, I hear you're a wizard?" He asked, looking back at Harry. "Got a wand and everything?" Harry nodded, pulling his wand out of his pocket so that Clint could see. "How's your aim?" Clint asked. Harry blinked.

"What?" A redheaded woman walked up, rolling her eyes and elbowing Clint.

"Thirty seconds into meeting the kid, and you're already talking about marksmanship? Really?" She asked dryly.

"It's what I'm good at. He has a wand that shoots out magic sparks, I shoot arrows." Clint said defensively. "What else do I have in common with a 12 year old British born demigod?"

"He has a point." Harry admitted. The woman snorted but shrugged.

"Fair enough." She said with a smirk. "I'm Natasha." Harry quite pointedly focused on her face, which got him some points in her book.

Just then a large blonde man walked into view. He smiled kindly and held out his hand. "Steve Rogers." Harry shook it eagerly. He was shaking Captain America's hand. CAPTAIN AMERICA! That wasn't to say Hawkeye and Black Widow weren't cool, but...CAPTAIN AMERICA! Steve looked over his shoulder, then put a hand on Clint's shoulder. "We're going downstairs, talk to you in a bit." Harry blinked as the three Avengers left, then blinked several more times as a young woman walked into view. He stared at her as she stopped in front of him. She was a good bit taller than him, as pale as a ghost, covered in tattoos of black runes, and wearing a flowing white sheet. Well, it probably wasn't a sheet, but it looked like one. She studied him intently, and Harry was startled to realize that she had two irises in each eye. He paused, then held out his hand.

"I'm Harry Potter. What's your name?" He asked. Harry wasn't exactly the kind of person to attack people for looking different, and he knew what it was like to be treated like a freak for something he couldn't control. Ahmanet's eyes widened slightly, then shook his hand hesitantly, as if she had never shaken hands before.

"I am Princess Ahmanet of Egypt." She said, her voice clear and, strangely, vaguely French. "Daughter of Set and King Menehptre." Harry blinked.

"Uhm, isn't Set male though?" Ahmanet's face twisted.

"My divine father was unclear on that point." She said. "As a god of chaos he is more than capable of changing forms at will. But he did not state which of my mortal parents he...coupled with, and I did not desire to ask for more details about how I was conceived." Harry shuddered.

"Probably for the best." He agreed. There was a pause as demigod looked at demigod. "So, uhm, what do you want to do?" He asked finally. "I mean, my...dad's talking to his girlfriend, so I don't want to interrupt them..." Ahmanet cocked her head to the side.

"My divine father mentioned something called movies?" She suggested tentatively. "He recommended that I watch something called 'Star Wars', though he also said to skip 'Episodes 1 & 2'." Harry nodded.

"You know, I've heard of Star Wars, but my Aunt and Uncle never let me watch it. They didn't let me watch much of anything really." He said thoughtfully. "I heard they were good though. I'm sure Mr. Stark has them."

"Indeed we do." JARVIS cut in, sounding vaguely amused. Ahmanet jumped, eyes darting.

"What are you?" She said, registering that the voice wasn't coming from a human.

"I am JARVIS. An Artificial Intelligence created by Mr. Stark. I run, monitor, and maintain this tower, among other things." Ahmanet blinked.

"An artificial genius loci?" She breathed. "Most impressive."

"Thank you your highness." JARVIS replied. "If you would step into the elevator, I will gladly direct you to the theater." Both demigods stepped inside, Harry readily, Ahmanet a little more cautiously.

"So...why do you call Set your divine father instead of just your father?" Harry asked, looking up at Ahmanet curiously as the doors closed. "Is that a tradition from Egypt?" Ahmanet shook her head.

"Set may have sired me, but he did not raise me." She said flatly. "I did not know of my divine lineage until I attempted to make a deal with him, shortly after my half brother's birth." Her hands clenched into fists for a second before slowly relaxing. "I honor and respect Set as a god and as the reason I am alive, but to call him my father without clarification would do a disservice to the man who cared for me and raised me. I loved my mortal father, and I will not dishonor him so." Harry nodded in understanding, and, realizing from Ahmanet's stance that he'd drudged up some painful memories of hers, they spent the rest of the ride in silence.

Five Minutes Ago

"Why'd we leave Cap?" Clint asked as they got into the elevator.

"I don't know about you, but I didn't feel like awkwardly standing around watching two teenagers introduce themselves when we didn't need to be there." Steve said. "I felt too much like a chaperone at a school dance. I get enough old man jokes from Tony without giving him ammunition." Clint paused, then made an agreeing hum.

"Good point. We weren't exactly going to contribute much to that conversation." He conceded.

"Besides, we've got JARVIS to keep an eye on the chaos kids, right?" Natasha said with a small smile.

"Indeed Agent Romanov." JARVIS agreed. "Though I'm afraid that I don't have a punch bowl to lurk by while I watch over them." There was a pause, then a startled chuckle from all three.

Twenty Minutes Later

Thor quietly followed Jane as she stormed up the walk to the front door of Number Four Privet Drive. Both were furious (so furious in fact that Jane had been unable to appreciate her first trip via the Bifrost, or her admittedly brief view of Asgard itself) though in different ways. Shortly after Thor had finished explaining the circumstances of Harry's birth and his own lack of a presence in his son's life to Jane, Bruce had arrived with Harry's medical report. It appeared that there were certain things that Helen had missed in her initial report to Thor, but had realized as she went back over the scans they'd taken. It was understandable of course. Helen's specialty was immediate trauma care and surgery, not analysis of old wounds, and Bruce had only basic medical knowledge himself. In addition, neither were pediatricians. Their experience had largely been with adults, whom rarely wished to discuss the sources of old scars and about which nothing could be done, and it had taken them a moment to adjust to the fact that they were dealing with a child who shouldn't have had half the injuries he'd suffered. But they had realized, and rather more quickly than others had.

Harry had had a minimum of two broken noses and three cracked ribs, which, like his arm, had not been treated properly but had healed in such a way as to not cause him too much difficulty (likely due to a combination of his magic and Asgardian ancestry). There were crisscrossing scars on his hands and legs that were the kind usually found on adult manual laborers. And, most troubling of all, there was a large set of scars left by punctures. Given what Harry had told Thor about his aunt's dog, Bruce did some quick comparisons to dog but patterns with JARVIS' help. It appeared that said dog had managed to catch Harry at least once.

The end result was that Thor had gone from upset to furious, and Jane was right there with him. It didn't matter to her that she didn't really know Harry. It barely even mattered that he was Thor's son. All that mattered was that he was a *child* and he'd been hurt. And so, after a quick check with JARVIS as to Harry's whereabouts and condition (he and Ahmanet were both quite engrossed with Star Wars Episode 4) Thor and Jane had gone to the pad, summoned the Bifrost, and then on to Privet Drive. Heimdall hadn't even needed to hear Thor state their destination (indeed, Thor had rarely seen the usually sedate man so upset) instead activating the Bifrost almost as soon as it had closed.

Thor summoned a strong gust of wind, forcing the front door open. Petunia Dursley looked up in shock as the two stormed into the sitting room, where Vernon was nursing a large glass of scotch. "What on earth..." she started before Jane punched her in the face.

"What the fuck is wrong with you people?" Jane snapped, eyes spitting fire.

Author's Notes

Okay, so that's Chapter Four! Thanks for reading everybody! Please review, reviews give me strength _

...yeah, I know, I know. Not a lot of chewing out the Dursleys in this chapter either, and a bit disjointed with the medical reports being split in half. I'm sorry. I really am.

With regards to the Dursleys...I'm sorry, partly it's because, as someone raised by narcissistic, emotionally abusive, conservative parents, dealing with that hits a bit too close to home. I can handle it in small bursts, but writing long paragraphs would be too much. And partly it's just that...no matter how righteous and justified Thor's anger is, having him confront the Dursleys is still showing a *god* threatening two regular humans. I don't trust myself to write that type of scene without going to far and making Thor look bad. Maybe I'll work in a running gag where every few chapters one of the Avengers pops by to Privet Drive to wreck the Dursleys in some new way, who knows.

And the medical stuff...well I hope the in universe justification works tolerably well. I confess that I was a bit too eager to work Ahmanet meeting Harry in, and I probably jumped the gun a bit...

Also, some of you may be wondering why I didn't show Thor and Jane's discussion. Well...I've shown Thor and Tony having that discussion. I've shown Thor and Odin having a variation of it. I've shown Thor and The Avengers as a whole have that discussion. And I've shown Thor and Harry have that discussion. Showing it a fifth time just felt like beating a dead horse with another dead horse.

I am continually amazed at Nimbus Llewelyn and his ability to juggle and define so many characters. I'm not going to lie, this story is a bit stressful to write just because I'm always worried if I'm doing an okay job with these characters, particularly Natasha, Harry, and Ahmanet. Please let me know what you think and offer suggestions as to how to improve!

As for when will Diana finally pop up? ...not sure. It really depends on how things shake out. I mean, my original plan was to introduce Ahmanet in the *second* chapter and have her meet Harry in the third, but that didn't work out obviously. I'm thinking that I'm going to hold off on introducing her until after the first big action arc. Since this universe WILL NOT have the events of Batman V Superman taking place, but still uses the Gal Gadot version of Diana and considers the 2017 Wonder Woman movie canon we've got to have something happen to get her to get back in the game. Rest assured that she will show up sooner rather than later, and that she will be a main character. She's a third of the trinity aspect of the title after all!


	5. Chapter 5

Ahmanet stared at the screen, licking her lips lightly, before looking at Harry. "Harry if we are ever in a position where I am going to be enslaved by a giant slug, I want you to kill me." She said bluntly. Harry looked at her, then at Jabba, then nodded.

"Fair enough." He said, unable to blame her. "Though...how exactly would I do that?" Ahmanet paused and cocked her head to the side.

"I'm...not sure..." She admitted slowly. "Perhaps..." She shook her head. She had an idea, but did not know Harry nearly well enough to voice it. Not yet. "I'm sure you'll figure something out." Harry looked at her, then shrugged.

"Hopefully we just won't meet one of those." Ahmanet pursed her lips and nodded.

"One can hope." There was a long moment of silence as the pair continued to watch the movie.

"Hey, you were desert royalty, right?" Harry asked. Ahmanet nodded silently, not taking her eyes off the screen as she popped a handful of Milk Duds into her mouth. "Did you have a harem like this?" Ahmanet dropped her box of candy.

"No." She said flatly, gritting her teeth.

"Uhm, sorry." Harry apologized hesitantly, wishing he hadn't asked. Ahmanet shook her head.

"It is not your fault. It was a harmless question. There were merely some...arguments between my mortal father and I on that front." She told him, bending down to retrieve her box of candy. Harry blinked, then decided to let it drop. He might have moments of insensitivity, but let it never said he was as bad as Ron. He was slowly but surely getting a picture of Ahmanet's relationship with her father and it seemed to have been a...complicated one to say the least. Not that he had much experience with parental figures, but every time her mortal father was brought up she looked very tense.

Two hours later

Tony looked up as Thor plopped down into a chair in the lab with a heavy sigh. "How'd it go?" He asked mildly.

"Their house still stands and I did not lay hands on them." Thor said shortly. "I consider that a victory." Tony nodded.

"And Jane?" He prompted. Thor smiled briefly.

"I have never seen her so angry. Indeed, I believe that she could have given my own mother some pointers on righteous rage." He shook his head. "She is currently having a 'girl's night' with Darcy, Maria, and Natasha." Tony nodded sagely.

"That makes sense." He said, turning and fiddling with some wiring. "It's not you you know." He added casually. "She just had her world turned upside down and needs some time to process everything." Thor nodded and gave Tony a calculating look.

"You can be a very wise man Tony." Tony just chuckled.

"Can being the operative word." He said flippantly. "And don't tell anybody, I have an image to protect." He paused and turned back in his swivel chair. "But what are you doing down here? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind, I'm just curious. I figured you'd be with your kid." Thor sighed.

"He and the daughter of Set are currently watching Star Wars. I did not wish to interrupt. And..." He shook his head. "My son has just had his world turned upside down even more thoroughly than Jane and I. I do not wish to add stress to him. I thought it would be best to let him have this moment of normalcy, of watching a movie with someone close to his age. And I know that you most likely have questions about wizards, so I thought I would come and answer them. You were right, explaining things helped." Tony looked at him for a long moment, then let out a resigned sigh and shook his head.

"Okay big guy, you're probably never going to hear me say this again, but...I don't want to ask you anything right now." Thor blinked as Tony continued. "Look, my dad...wasn't the best. And I don't have any kids. Not that I'm aware of anyway. So I admit I don't have any experience with being a good parent. But...I'm pretty sure that your kid would rather have you with him than every movie in the world." Thor stared at him for a long moment of silence.

"Perhaps you are right." He admitted slowly. "I...I should go." With that he stood back up and walked out of the lab. Tony stared after him, then glanced over at the computer.

"How's it going J?"

"I have yet to find any record of a child of yours in North America." The AI said briskly. "That does not mean that you have none of course, but I think for the moment that you are in the clear as it were." Tony nodded and got back to work. The discovery of Harry had lit a fire under him, and he just wanted to make quadruply sure that he didn't have any kids out there that needed his attention but weren't getting it.

"Alright, well, keep looking. And make sure you don't stop in North America. Europe, Japan, Rio, Australia, I want a whole search."

"Of course sir."

Three Minutes Later

Harry blinked as the movie paused. He looked down the aisle as Thor walked towards them. His...dad stopped awkwardly and looked at the two teenagers (for a certain value of teenager with regards to Ahmanet). He nodded at Ahmanet. "Greetings Princess Ahmanet." He said formally. Ahmanet nodded back.

"Greetings Prince Thor Odinson." She replied, equally formally. Thor looked at Harry next.

"I...was wondering if I could watch the movie alongside you." He asked hesitantly. Harry, however, did not hesitate.

"Yes!" He said quickly. Thor smiled and sat down next to him, and the movie resumed.

At The Same Time

Colonel James Rhodes, aka Rhodey, aka the Iron Patriot (and wouldn't Tony laugh at the new name), slowly lowered himself into the Chinese valley, his weapons currently inactive in an attempt to display that he hadn't come for a fight. That didn't mean he wasn't ready for one obviously, but he didn't want to fight his way through an unknown valley if he didn't have to. He looked around, scanning the area, as he carefully made his way through the valley. "Anybody out here?" He called. "I'm not here for a fight, I just want to talk!" He really needed to talk to Tony about getting a JARVIS of his own, an extra set of eyes that wouldn't be a second target would be incredibly useful. Plus JARVIS might know what this black fog rolling in was.

Rhodey quickly sealed his suit, going to the oxygen already stored. He had filters of course, but he didn't want to risk it when faced with an unknown gas. Soon he was completely engulfed in the black fog, even his spotlights only lighting up the five feet directly around him. "What the hell?" He muttered, turning in a cautious circle. Suddenly a wall of blue ice rose from the ground, cutting him off from the way he'd come. Rhodey quickly whirled back around, on alert. His suit could fly of course, so the wall wasn't much of a threat, but the warning was clear.

As he turned around the fog was parting to reveal a man walking towards him at a slow, stately pace. He wore a very formal looking green robe, and a jeweled ring on each of his fingers but, weirdly, was also sporting Ray Bans. The man stopped a good ten feet away from Rhodey, simply standing and contemplating him. After a full minute of silence, Rhodey spoke up, holding up his hands. "I'm Colonel James Rhodes of the United States Air Force..." he began. The man snorted.

"Your nationality is obvious." He said dryly, his accent a mix of British and something vaguely Chinese that Rhodey couldn't identify off the top of his head. "I could hardly mistake you for someone of Japanese origin with a color scheme like that." Rhodey sighed.

"Yeah well, I didn't get a say in the new paint job." He said in resignation. He paused for a moment before continuing. "Look, I didn't come here for a fight. We lost a plane down here, in this valley a day ago, I'm just here for the pilots." The man reached into a pocket in his robe and pulled out a stopwatch, pressing a button.

"Twenty six hours and thirty seven minutes." He announced. "I confess to being impressed. It took the Russians two weeks to send someone after their pilots, and they are much closer." He turned around, beckoning. "Come. I will take you to where your pilots are being held." Rhodey blinked and followed after the strange man.

"You were timing our response time?" He demanded. "Is that why you shot down that plane?" The man shook his head.

"No. I'm afraid that the Chinese government has attempted to drive me from my home a great many times. As a result, I have made it a policy to shoot down any military aircraft that flies over this valley, as I lack the equipment to ascertain their purpose while they remain in the air." He shrugged carelessly. "It is an imprecise strategy I concede, but the most prudent I have available to me." Rhodey blinked.

"Wait, you couldn't tell what the origin of the jet was, but you could see it clear enough to shoot it down?"

"The mountains surrounding this valley are quite tall. It greatly lowers the operational ceiling of aircraft." The man explained as he led Rhodey under an arch to a very opulent looking mansion. "Not enough to make out insignia of course, but enough to be able to make them out with the naked eye." Rhodey blinked.

"You know, if you promise not to shoot down any more of our planes I'm sure I could talk the Air Force into getting you a telescope." He said dryly.

"I'd happily forgo a telescope in favor of you declaring my valley a no fly zone." The man retorted, his voice equally dry as he gestured for Rhodey to enter a room. It wasn't exactly a luxury room, but compared to most of the places that US military personnel usually got stashed after being captured it was the Four Seasons. The two pilots looked up. Both were blonde with blue eyes, one in her late twenties, the other in his early twenties.

"Colonel Danvers, Captain Storm." Rhodey said, looking at the two as they clambered out of beds.

"Hey Rhodey." Carol Danvers said with a little wave. "They sent the big guns huh?" Rhodey snorted as he scanned them, making sure that they weren't seriously injured and didn't have any spyware on them. They left the room and headed towards the door. They walked in silence until the man led down a different path than what he'd used to lead Rhodey in. As they entered a large hall, Rhodey stopped dead in his tracks, staring at a massive tapestry over one of the doors. It bore a darkly familiar symbol on it, loud and proud, and Rhodey whirled around to stare at his host.

"What is *that* doing here?" He demanded, jabbing a finger at the symbol of the organization known as the Ten Rings. The man arched an eyebrow.

"You recognize that symbol?" He paused, then nodded. "Ah, yes, I suppose you would. Rest assured that I have throughly purged those involved in that nasty business in Afghanistan. Well, those that Obadiah Stane and Tony Stark didn't kill first of course. Attempting to hold a man like Tony Stark captive was foolishness, and a plan that I did not approve." Rhodey stared at him, processing what the man was saying, taking in his clothes, his manner of speech, his body language, his...rings.

"You're the Mandarin." He said bluntly. The man nodded.

"Indeed." Rhodey powered up his shoulder cannons, a dull hum filling the air as his weaponry focused on the Mandarin, who stood where he was, seemingly unconcerned by the threat aimed at him.

"I'm going to need you to come with me." Rhodey said. Standing in front of him was one of the most wanted men in the world, the leader of the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world. The Mandarin considered him for a long moment, then shook his head.

"No, I don't think I will." He said simply. "You have your pilots. They have not been harmed. I have no desire to go to war with the United States, much less the Avengers, at this moment. Depart in peace Colonel Rhodes. Leave the fight for another day." Rhodey shook his head and took a step forward.

"Yeah, see, it doesn't work that way." He started. Before he could take another step though, much to his surprise both pilots grabbed his arms, pulling him back. Neither was strong enough to budge the suit, but the intent was clear, and that was enough to give Rhodey pause.

"Not the time Rhodey!" Carol hissed, nodding towards the door they'd been heading for. "We need to go."

"She's right Colonel." Captain Storm said, nodding fervently. "That guy managed to shoot down an experimental jet that was designed to handle attacks from the Chitauri. Neither of us saw any anti aircraft weapons in the valley when we got dragged here, which means either they're very well hidden, or he's got some serious enhancements."

"He disintegrated the wings of our jet Rhodey." Carol growled. "Like the armor plating wasn't even there. I don't think your suit will fare much better." Rhodey took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"You're right, you're right." He muttered, making the pilots relax. "Now isn't the time." All three Americans turned and headed for the door. Before they'd even gotten halfway across the room Rhodey whirled around, opening fire on the Mandarin with of his repulsors. The man's fingers twitched, and a wall of metal appeared between him and Rhodey, absorbing the blast. The wall disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and the Mandarin let out a disappointed sigh.

"So you insist on taking action than." He said calmly. Rhodey was seething.

"You know, if you were just some gun toting Capone of the mountains I'd probably let you go." He growled. "But you had my best friend kidnapped and tortured. That makes this a whole different ballgame." He opened fire with the rocket launcher on his shoulder, firing off six rockets at once. There was a second finger twitch and a swirling vortex opened up, swallowing the weapons. Rhodey opened up with his shoulder mounted machine gun, as well as the ones in his arms. The wall of metal appeared once more, as ice climbed the walls, sealing the doors and preventing the two pilots from escaping.

"Enough of this." The Mandarin sighed. "These carpets are very expensive, and matter manipulation only makes up for so much." A beam of yellow energy punched through the metal and slammed into Rhodey's right arm, sheeting off his weapons and much of his armor on that arm. A second beam did the same to his left arm, and a third hit his right knee, forcing him to kneel. The metal disappeared, as did the ice, and the Mandarin walked forward, an orb of wind hovering over one hand.

"Tell me Colonel, can that remarkable suit of yours tell me what kind of gas this is?" He asked, his voice conversational and utterly unconcerned. Rhodey gritted his teeth. Even down two arms and a knee, his armor was far from helpless. Being dismissed rankled him fiercely. But he scanned the gas all the same.

"Sarin." He growled. The Mandarin nodded.

"Correct. Now, I have no doubt that even in this state your armor could protect you from most of the harm this, and any number of other gasses I could create could do. The same however, can not be said for them." He nodded significantly at where the two pilots were standing, the Colonel glaring daggers and clenching her fists while the Captain's eyes darted from person to person. The orb's surface rippled, threatening to grow. "Now, should you continue on this course, I will be forced to release my grip on the poison and allow it fill this room. Do you still wish to further this fight?" Rhodey growled.

"No."

"Good." The Mandarin nodded and turned around, heading for the door through which they had entered. "If go through the door which your companions are gathered by, you will enter a straight hallway. Go through it, and you will emerge outside. Take a left, and you will arrive at a narrow path which will lead you out of the valley, where you can arrange for transport. Safe travels." He left, leaving Rhodey shaking in anger as the other two quickly helped him stand.

"I hate that guy." He growled as they headed out.

One Day Later

Nicholas Fury turned to face Rhodey, taking his eye off the mangled remains of the Iron Patriot armor. "The Mandarin did that?" He demanded. "Without any artillery?" Rhodey shook his head, wincing as a medic put an ice pack on one of the burns on his arms.

"None that I could see at least sir." He said, frustrated. "Whatever energy weapon he used, he didn't do it until he was firmly behind a defensive barrier. But at the same time, I don't see how he could have gotten a weapon of any size in and out of that room so quickly without me seeing something." He sighed. "Frankly sir? I'd put money on his rings being extraterrestrial. Even Tony couldn't make something so compact that packed that much of a punch." Fury raised an eyebrow.

"You sure it's the rings?" He asked bluntly. There was no known footage of the Mandarin himself fighting past what the Iron Patriot suit had recorded. The man rarely engaged in combat personally, and when he did nothing usually survived. They had precious little to go off of. Rhodey shrugged.

"I mean, I suppose it could be something built into the hall itself, or he could have the power himself like Thor or Banner, but my gut says it the rings. I mean, he calls his group The Ten Rings. You don't do that just because you like your jewelry." Fury sighed.

"That's what I was afraid of." Weapons he could handle. Cannons, artillery, robots, suits, he could deal with all of that. And maybe Rhodes was right and this was just alien tech. But unlike the Air Force man turned hero, Fury had seen a few more...earthly threats that could conjure structures from thin air in seconds. Magic. And that was a whole different mess. There were wizards of course, he'd done business with some in the past and dealt with more. But there weren't a lot of people in SHIELD trained to handle magic. It simply wasn't a problem that came up often enough to require dedicating large amounts of resources to. For one thing, most of the Wizarding nations insisted on policing themselves, and reacted negatively (and sometimes even violently) to 'interference' from those without magic. And for another, wizards were frankly a minority. Admittedly one average wizard with the element of surprise on his side could do more damage than ten average non magical people, but at a little over two hundred non magical days for every one wizard, there just wasn't enough to worry about too much.

At least, that was the line that the World Security Council insisted on. Fury did his best to work around that kind of thinking, because he was of the opinion that there was no such thing as a threat not worth preparing for, and Pierce did his best to help, but ultimately the Council determined his budget, which determined his options. He let out a sigh.

"You did good work Rhodes." He assured the other man. "You got Danvers and Storm out, and got us more footage of the Mandarin in action than all the task forces assigned to deal with him combined." He patted him on the shoulder. "Rest and heal up, then take this to Stark." Rhodey blinked, and Fury sighed. "The gods know I hate to boost his ego any, but if anyone can get your suit strong enough to resist whatever the hell the Mandarin was firing at you within the next decade, it's him." Rhodey nodded.

"And you sir?" He asked curiously. Fury shrugged.

"We've got a god that likes to go explore space in his spare time." He said, heading for the door. "I rather thought I'd ask him what he thought."

-  
Author's Notes

Thank you for reading everybody! I'm legitimately stunned (in the very best way) at the positive reaction this story has gotten, and I hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint!

So, we've finally moved a bit past the events immediately following the discovery of Harry and Ahmanet. Don't worry, I'm not done writing about the adjustments this will cause, nor am I going to avoid Thor and Harry explaining the Wizarding World to the Avengers. But the nice thing about a Cinematic Universe (or any other shared universe), is that lots of things can be happening at the same time. So yeah, I figured that while I built up the personal relationships, I might as well build the plot in other ways.

So yes, the Mandarin will be our first boss as it were, the villain who drives the existence of Harry and Ahmanet fully into the open and gets Diana to come back out of retirement. I've decided to go with a blend of the comic version's powers and Ben Kingsley's version's fashion sense, with a hopefully tolerable blend of their personalities.

I hope any Rhodey fans out there aren't angry with me. I'm not worfing him or trying to downplay his power and skill, I promise. He lost as badly as he did because he fought an extremely skilled and powerful opponent without prior knowledge of their powers, he was very angry, and he had two other people who weren't equipped for that kind of fight to think about. He will get his back, I promise.

Also, Carol Danvers and Johnny Storm were here, yay! I'm going to hold off on giving Carol her powers until I see how the MCU handles it (or at least until Infinity War 1) to limit the number of toes I step on and plots I crush. Obviously we're going very off the rails in relation to the MCU canon, but this is still based on the movies as much as the comics. And given how much I love the MCU versions of Wanda Maximoff, Scott Lang, Ultron, and the Guardians, far more than I expected to, I'm hesitant to completely cut off that particular branch. Admittedly, Carol Danvers is one of my favorite Marvel heroes, so I don't know what the movies could do to make me like her *more*, but still.

Johnny though...he'll probably show up again, along with the rest of the Fantastic Four, but when that will happen I don't know. I'm less hesitant to bring them in than I am Carol though, since Fox is being stupid petty and won't share them with Marvel even though they've never had a truly successful Fantastic Four movie :/

Speaking of Fox, no, the X-Men won't be appearing, nor will mutants in general. Sorry, I've got enough to work with as it is, and if I tried integrating the X-Men some of them (Rogue, Gambit, Deadpool and the Jennifer Lawrence Mystique) would take over the whole plot. Sorry!

Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

Harry rolled in his chair across the floor of Thor's personal kitchen. From what his dad said it wasn't used often, but all the Avengers had one in their floors apparently. He'd spent the last hour peppering his dad with questions and being peppered in return by Jane. For his part Thor was cutting up carrots. Harry, having done quite a bit of cooking in his life, was fairly certain that one wasn't supposed to cut carrots with a cleaver but felt it best not to comment. After Harry asked how Heimdall saw everything (and was throughly unimpressed by Thor's answer of 'magic') Thor laughed. "You have as many questions as Jane did." He chuckled, gesturing between the pair with the cleaver. Jane arched an eyebrow.

"So you're saying that I'm just like a preteen boy?" She asked dryly, leaning towards him in her chair. Thor's eyes widened and his mouth worked in silent terror.

"I...uhm...I mean..." He stammered. Harry couldn't take it any more and burst out laughing at his dad's reaction, Jane doing so after a second more of stern looks. Thor glared at her. "You would get along far better with my brother than I like Jane Foster." He said, waving the cleaver unhappily. Harry paused, considering what had just been said.

"Wait...does...that make Loki my uncle?" He asked hesitantly. Thor paused, then nodded, sighing heavily.

"Indeed it does." He told Harry, the merriment leaving his face. "Had things worked out differently, I have no doubt that he would like you both." Thor's face twisted, and he shook his head. "Perhaps one day he will atone for his crimes. But I do not imagine that it will come in this century." Suddenly JARVIS interrupted.

"Excuse the interruption Prince Thor, but Director Fury has arrived and is asking to speak with you." Thor frowned.

"Is Midgard being invaded?" He asked.

"It does not appear to be." JARVIS assured him. "However, he said that Colonel Rhodes encountered a threat of either extraterrestrial or supernatural origin, and wishes for your opinion." Thor paused, looking at his son and his lover.

"We'll be fine." Harry assured him. Jane nodded firmly.

"He's right. Go talk to Fury. I'm sure Harry and I can find things to talk about." Thor nodded and gave Jane a kiss on the lips and Harry a kiss to the top of his head before heading for the elevator. As he did, he heard Jane ask "So how does magic work exactly?" followed by a sigh from Harry.

"I'm 12! I just learned that magic even existed last year!" Thor grinned as he left his preteen son to the mercy of a curious scientist.

A minute later he strode out of the elevator into the conference room located near the top of the tower. "Director Fury. How can I be of assistance?" He asked, registering the presence of his friends, who were gathered around the table.

"Four days ago an experimental United States Air Force jet was shot down over China." Fury said bluntly. The others blinked.

"What was it doing in China?" Tony demanded, looking confused. Fury grimaced.

"The Air Force won't say." He said, sounding frustrated, before shaking his head and continuing. "After checking the usual channels to see if the Chinese government had anything to do with it, Colonel Rhodes was sent in to retrieve the pilots." Tony stiffened in his seat, but remained quiet. "This is what happened." Fury said, putting a flash drive into the projector on the table.

The Avengers watched in silence as the recording from Rhodey's suit played. Once it was done, everyone assembled looked at Thor, who frowned in consideration. "It is not magic of Midgard." He said slowly. "None that I've ever encountered at least. Some mortal wizards and witches have a degree of wandless magic, but it's largely limited to telekinesis. Nothing so elaborate as what this Mandarin displayed." Fury considered him for a moment.

"What about a demigod?" He asked bluntly. Thor paused.

"It would be possible." He said slowly. "However, the godly parent in question would need to be a god or goddess of magic to give their child such skill at conjuring without a wand. And demigods are not as common as they once were." Thor shook his head. "It's possible, but unlikely."

"So we're dealing with something extraterrestrial than." Fury said. Thor grimaced and walked up to the screen, examining the rings as best as he could.

"They could be magical artifacts." He said hesitantly. "But there are no legends of such weapons that I am aware of." He gave Fury an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Director. Academics and artifacts have never been my forte. I left that to my mother and brother." Fury sighed.

"It was a long shot. But at least I know he's probably not a wizard, which helps." He shook his head. "I was going to make the trip anyway, for a few reasons. Stark." Tony arched an eyebrow. "The Air Force refuses to let the Iron Patriot suit leave their custody."

"I'm sorry, Iron Patriot?" Clint demanded as Tony spluttered indignantly. Fury sighed.

"Apparently the name War Machine didn't test well." He said dryly, rolling his eye. "Regardless, that drive contains everything Colonel Rhodes was able to get from his encounter with the Mandarin. I'm not expecting you to figure out how he did it, or even what he did, but I need you to get to work on making new armor that can withstand the blast the Mandarin used, or at least not get blown away like tissue paper. Can you do that?" Tony shrugged.

"Depends on what data the 'Iron Patriot' suit was able to pull." He said, waving a hand. "JARVIS, download the data, give it a look. See if you can get any heat, pressure, or chemical readings from where Rhodey got hit."

"Right away Sir." JARVIS replied promptly. Tony looked at Fury. "Anything else?" Fury ignored him, instead looking at first Thor, then Natasha and Clint.

"I just went over your reports, as well as Agent Broughton's." He told the two spies before directing his gaze at Thor. "Were any of you planning on telling me that you have two demigods in here now?" Thor gave him a firm look.

"I fail to see how that's any business of yours." Fury sighed.

"Look, I'm not here to demand you hand either of them over or anything like that. That's not my place, and I'm not stupid enough to try. But it's my job to know what threats are out there and what's likely to attract those threats. And I'm sorry, but dangling the son of Thor and the daughter of Set in the same place is going to attract attention from your enemies. Moreover, from what I gather your son has already made at least one very powerful enemy in the Wizarding World. I need to know these things so that I know where to increase my watch." Thor nodded reluctantly.

"You make a valid argument Director, my apologies." Fury waved him off.

"It's not a huge deal." He admitted. "Just something I needed to express." He refocused his attention on Clint and Natasha. "Agent Broughton communicated the wishes of Princess Ahmanet quite clearly." He told them. "The Council has decided to honor those requests. For once, I am inclined to agree with them. So, provided that there's room for her, Agent Broughton will be arriving at the Tower tomorrow morning." Tony snorted.

"Does it look like I'm hurting for space Fury?" He asked wryly. "I had to clear out one of my spare labs, but the Mummy has her own floor." He made a face and looked around at the others. "Speaking of which, anybody else got any long lost relatives or something that they promised to keep an eye on? Just want to know if I need to make space." Steve rolled his eyes and both Clint and Natasha snorted, but Bruce actually drummed his fingers on the table.

"My cousin might come to visit occasionally." He said slowly. "And...I would like to be able to invite Betty here once in a while." There was a pause as the others stared at him, then Tony scowled and whacked him upside the head.

"For the love of...of course you can have your girlfriend over!" He sighed in exasperation. "Or your cousin! Well, as long as your girlfriend isn't your cousin. But c'mon Bruce, how many times was Thor going need to bring Jane over before you realized that everybody's girlfriends, boyfriends, or whatever are allowed?" Bruce shrugged uncomfortably, earning Tony a disapproving look from Steve. Clint, on the other hand, snorted.

"Wait, you seriously think that Thor's the only who's brought a lover home?" He demanded incredulously. Tony stared at him.

"Wait what?" Before anything else could be said, Fury cut in.

"As fascinating as this discussion is, I'd appreciate it if you'd wait until after I left." He said flatly. Tony muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'killjoy' but let Fury continue. "Good. Agent Broughton will arrive tomorrow morning than. Please behave yourself." He sighed with the long suffering of a parent, giving Natasha a Look. Natasha huffed.

"You get in one prank war..." She muttered, rolling her eyes. Tony fell out of his chair as Thor and Steve stared at Natasha.

"Prank war?" Tony demanded. "What...what the hell? What alternate mirror dimension did that happen in?" Clint chuckled and Fury scowled.

"Leaving the corpses of your targets in random closets throughout SHIELD headquarters for the other to stumble on isn't a prank war Romanoff." He growled. "We're still paying for Sitwell's therapy bills." Natasha shrugged unrepentantly, and Tony stared in horror. Thor could all but see him mentally canceling his short lived plans for an Avengers prank war. Fury sighed and pulled out the flash drive. "That's everything." He said flatly, walking out the door. The minute he was gone Steve swiveled his seat around to face Natasha directly.

"You stashed corpses in random closets?" He demanded. Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Fury's exaggerating." The others looked at her. "They weren't random, they were carefully calculated to be the ones the other was most likely to enter. Lorraine just got her leg broken and was a bit slow to get to the closet one time, that's all. Sitwell is a big baby, it's not like any blood got him." Clint was cracking up now, getting him some disturbed looks from Tony. Steve sighed.

"All this because she has one more kill than you?" He asked.

"Actually I was ahead by five at the time." Natasha replied. "There's some personal issues between us I admit, but nothing I want to discuss." Tony shook his head and stood up.

"I'm going down to my lab to look over the data Patches brought over." He said, holding up his hands. "Just...don't leave any corpses around the Tower please, okay Natasha?" He pleaded. "Pepper would kill me." Natasha smirked but nodded.

"No corpse hiding, promise." She said. Tony nodded and headed for the elevator, Thor close behind. Bruce looked at Natasha who held up her hands. "What? I promise. This isn't exactly a group I want to startle, you know? Especially not since I live here." Bruce chuckled.

"Fair enough." He said with a nod before stifling a yawn. "Well, I'm off to bed. Night everyone." There was a chorus of 'good nights' as the Avengers filed out of the meeting room.

ThirteenHours Later

Tony blinked as he walked out of the elevator and into the lobby of the Tower to find Ahmanet standing in the center of it, looking at the doors very intently. She was wearing yet another of her formal Egyptian sheet robes things, this one pure white and looking freshly dry cleaned and pressed. To most she looked utterly calm and collected, but Tony could see the tension in her shoulders and the way she was ever so slightly bouncing on her heels. "How long have you been down here kid?" He asked as he came up to stand beside her. Ahmanet frowned. She'd gotten used to Tony's lack of formality, largely due to Thor's repeated explanations that the inventor meant no personal slight, but it took some getting used to.

"I do not know." She said flatly, not removing her eyes from the doors. "This room does not have a clock, nor do I have a watch. It was dark outside when I arrived." Tony looked around the lobby, registering an utter lack of chairs beyond the one behind receptionist's desk. He'd have to do something about that. But more to the point...

"You've been standing here for six hours?" He asked incredulously. Ahmanet gave a very small shrug.

"I have stood for longer, in places more hostile than this. Moreover, I was aware to a certain degree for much of the time that I was in my sarcophagus." Tony whistled.

"That sucks." Ahmanet nodded curtly.

"It was not a pleasant experience." She agreed.

"Doesn't explain *why* you chose to stand here that long though." Tony pointed out.

"You said that Agent 10's commander said she would arrive tomorrow." Ahmanet said. "You did not specify a time." Tony blinked at her, startled. Ahmanet seemed to blush ever so slightly, and she shook, refocusing on the door. "I would be a poor Queen to not be present when my Seti Pai arrived."

"Your what?" Tony asked, confused.

"My Chosen." Ahmanet explained curtly. "My tutor, aide, and bodyguard." Tony blinked again, but before he could ask anything further Lorraine strode through the doors carrying a large suitcase, a cigarette in her free hand.

"Quite the reception." She said dryly, eyes moving from Ahmanet to Tony and back again. "You majesty." She said, nodding her head at Ahmanet. The shorter woman frowned up at her.

"We last spoke five days ago." She said, a hint of petulance in her voice. It startled Tony some. For all of Ahmanet's regal bearing and attitude, it was easy to forget that she'd been nineteen when whatever had happened to her her buried alive for five thousand years happened, and that, like Steve, she hadn't aged since going under, which meant that she still had the mind and emotional maturity of a teen. "You said that you would speak to your superiors immediately." Ahmanet continued, her tone coming dangerously close to whining. "What happened." Lorraine shrugged with a huff.

"Bureaucracy and legal red tape." She told Ahmanet flatly. "You've churned up quite a storm among the leadership, you and Thor's son, just by existing. There's no precedent, which means no way for the politicians to do anything quickly. I apologize for the delay." Ahmanet stared at her intently, her double irised eyes searching the taller woman's face before nodding.

"It is not your fault." She said finally. "Come, I will show you to our floor and then we can retrieve the rest of your things." She turned and headed for the elevator.

"The rest of my things?" Lorraine asked carefully as she followed. Ahmanet stopped, mid stride, her shoulders stiffening. "I'm afraid these are all my personal belongings." Ahmanet sighed and nodded curtly.

"We shall rectify that then." She said, continuing to the elevator. "You are a royal retainer now, and you will need to be outfitted as such." She hesitated and looked from Tony to Lorraine. "Precious stones are still acceptable forms of currency, yes?" Lorraine's lips twitched and Tony shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. But bring them to me and I'll convert them into cash for you." Ahmanet stared at him blankly, cocking her head to the side. "Sorry, forgot why you needed a tutor." He said quickly. "You give me some precious stones, and I'll give you their value in our currency." Ahmanet nodded in understanding.

"Thank you Lord Stark. I will be with you again shortly." She said, hitting a button on the elevator, making the doors closed. Tony blinked, realizing that left him stuck in the lobby until the reached the upper limits of the Tower and the elevator could come back, and sighed.

"JARVIS, make a note to get some chairs for the lobby. Comfy ones."

"At once Sir." JARVIS replied, sounding quietly amused.

Up in the elevator, Lorraine looked Ahmanet up and down. "If I'm to get new clothes, you'll need some too." She said finally. Ahmanet looked at her sharply.

"What is wrong with my attire?" She demanded. Lorraine's lips twitched in another small smile.

"It doesn't exactly blend in." She said, not unkindly. Ahmanet gave her a dry look, gesturing at herself to indicate her skin, tattoos, and double irises. "Makeup and sunglasses can cover that up." Lorraine pointed out. "But if you want to go anywhere outside of this tower without dealing with crowds of gawkers, you'll need modern apparel." Ahmanet let out a small huff but nodded. This was one of the reasons why she needed Lorraine after all. Her divine father had been pressed for time, and the knowledge he'd imparted was limited to the things he'd deemed essential to her survival. And Star Wars. Things such as fashion and currency had not rated a mention.

Lorraine blinked as she stepped out of the elevator and into Ahmanet's floor within the Tower. For the most part it looked as how she'd expected Ahmanet to want things decorated, lots of silk, tan walls and hieroglyphics carefully painted on the walled, but on the other hand..."Shag carpeting?" She asked in surprise. Ahmanet definitely blushed this time.

"I have spent most of my life walking on the sands of Egypt or the stone floors of the palace." She said, gesturing to indicate bare feet. "This is a...welcome change." Lorraine shrugged, setting down her suitcase.

"Fair enough. Where will I be sleeping?" Ahmanet nodded and led her to a room directly across from her own.

"It isn't finished yet." Ahmanet warned her. "Most of this floor isn't. So far only the entrance room and my bedroom is. And..." she hesitated before continuing "I did not wish to have your room designed without letting you give your input." Lorraine smirked.

"You're sweet." She said, leaning down and giving Ahmanet a peck on the nose before walking into the sparse bedroom, leaving Ahmanet staring after her, mouth slightly open.

Elsewhere in the Tower, others were making similar plans to go shopping. And while clothes were on the list, there were less mundane items to be acquired as well. Jane stared at Thor and Harry in disbelief.

"Wait wait. You're telling me that there's an entire Wizarding shopping district in London, one the size of Times Square or possibly bigger, and that nobody without magic has ever noticed it?" She demanded incredulously.

"Yeah." Harry said. Jane stared at them and shook her head.

"There are more surveillance cameras in London than any other city in the world!" She protested. "We've got airplanes, helicopters, every other kid has a drone! How could it go unnoticed if it's not underground?" Harry and Thor looked at each other.

"Magic." Father and son said in unison, smiling innocently at Jane, who folded her arms and let out a huff.

"You can't just use magic as an excuse for not explaining everything." She told Thor shortly. Thor sighed.

"Very well. Diagon Alley, like much of the Wizarding World, is shielded from non magical eyes by a mixture of illusions, charms designed to distract those without magic, and barriers that detect magic."

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Tony interrupted, dragging an apologetic looking Bruce into Thor's living room. "You can't just explain magic to Jane and leave me out in the cold!" He protested, plopping down in the couch and dragging Bruce down with him. Thor blinked at their arrival, then blinked again as Natasha and Steve entered from the stair way and Clint slid out of the vents.

"All of you?" He asked, sounding slightly stunned. Clint shrugged.

"The Wizarding community is pretty secretive." He said. "Any information is good." Natasha nodded. Steve gave a half smile.

"I may not be a scientist, but that doesn't mean I'm not curious." He said genuinely. Bruce sighed.

"Tony dragged me here." Thor chuckled.

"Very well. Ask away my friends. Harry and I will do our best to answer your questions." Harry nodded, though he was quieter and was sitting noticeably closer to his dad than he had been when the others started filing in. He wasn't afraid of the Avengers exactly, he'd been in the Tower for five days and had spent at least a little time with all of them, but there were still a lot of adults gathered together in one small place, which made him nervous, even if he didn't want to be. Plus they were all heroes who saved the world on a regular basis, he couldn't help but be star struck a bit.

"So, how do wands work?" Tony asked eagerly. To Harry's surprise, the question seemed to be directed at him as much as it was his dad. Harry paused, pulling his wand out of his pocket and rolling it in his hands.

"I'm not sure." Harry said slowly, looking up at his dad. Tony blinked.

"You use it and don't know how it works?" He asked incredulously. Harry blushed.

"Nobody teaches us how it works, I just know that it does." He said awkwardly. His dad stepped in, saving him from Tony's lack of comprehension at this concept.

"A wizard or witch's body produces magic." He explained. "Constantly. The wand is created from certain materials that resonate with the individual's magical frequency and harnesses it. As for why only certain people have the ability to produce this energy, I do not know. As I told Fury last night, academics are not my forte." Tony looked deeply unsatisfied with this, but didn't pursue it.

"Why are they still hidden?" Steve asked. "After New York, why not come out into the open?" Thor sighed.

"A variety of reasons. Long lingering mistrust after the witch hunts, a reluctance to be forced to offer magical solutions to all the world's problems, an institutional belief in their own superiority, and tradition." He listed. Clint snorted, unimpressed. Tony agreed.

"So racism and stubbornness." He summarized. Harry shifted uncomfortably, and Thor nodded, putting an arm around him. Natasha was not so dismissive though.

"Fear is a valid reaction." She said thoughtfully, looking at the others. "Religion, at least the Abrahmic ones, have taken a negative stance on magic for millennia at this point. If the majority of a demographic hate you and try to kill your on sight, and have been advocating doing so for at least two thousand years, that's going to build up." Tony opened his mouth, but Bruce cut him off.

"Don't say that's not a thing anymore Tony." He said reproachfully. "I remember the Satanic Panic, it's still a thing, even if it's on the downswing right now." Tony sighed but nodded.

"Fine, whatever." He said. From there the conversation turned to lighter things, such as how brooms worked, what kind of classes Harry took, why was astronomy considered a required class for all wizards and witches, what kept Hogwarts hidden from satellites, and the like. Eventually the questions ran down, and the topic turned to the original impetus for the conversation, Harry's school shopping. His supply list had come in earlier that day, along with a carefully worded but clearly displeased letter from Professor Dumbledore asking to meet with him as soon as possible (to which Thor had sent a terse reply with the owl who'd delivered it, agreeing to a meeting the next day). Tony blinked when Harry pulled out the parchment.

"Whoa whoa, wait a minute. How'd you get that?" He asked, pointing at the letter. "The mail hasn't come in yet." Any and all mail delivered to the Tower was carefully examined by JARVIS and DUM-E to make certain that nothing dangerous made it past the reinforced basement, so Tony knew Harry shouldn't have gotten any letters yet. Harry shrugged, not sure what the problem was.

"It was delivered by owl earlier." Tony stared at him.

"Owl? Is that some kind of acronym?" Harry shook his head.

"It's an actual owl. It's what wizards use to deliver mail." Tony sighed.

"This going to be a whole nother security issue, isn't it?" He moaned, massaging his temples. "I'm going to have to build a little room for them to land in and scan the mail and..." he paused and looked up sharply. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. That's from your school, right kid?" Harry nodded. "You guys have owls that can fly across the Atlantic?" Harry paused, then nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so." He said.

"Magic." Thor explained with a slightly smug smile. Tony gave him a dirty look.

"Great. That...that's just great. Super owls." He groaned. "JARVIS, find a space in the upper floors that I can convert into a super owl landing zone so we can check the mail that British wizards are going to be sending, because this is my life now."

"Right away Sir." JARVIS said quickly.

"You alright Tony?" Steve asked gently, concerned. Tony looked at him, a slightly maniac look in his eyes.

"Yeah, fine. My world is totally not flipped on its head. I've already got the Norse god of thunder, a five thousand year old teenage Egyptian princess, and a World War 2 vet that looks younger than me living here, why would super owls bother me?"

"Tony, breathe." Bruce urged him. "Just...breathe."

"I'm with Tony actually." Clint said, shaking his head. "Super, mail delivering owls." He looked at Thor. "I assume that they don't have to have previously been somewhere to deliver mail there?"

"No, they don't." Thor said. Clint cursed.

"Fury's going to hate this."

"I'm sure he knows." Natasha pointed out.

"Well I hate it then." Clint sighed.

"They can't do any harm to a person." Thor reassured them. "No more than a regular owl at least."

"Yeah but they can deliver bombs or poisons." Clint pointed out. "Or you could just follow it on a broomstick and bam, you know where the other person is hiding." Thor considered this.

"I see your point." He said with a nod. "I will look into this while we are at Diagon Alley. Wizards value their privacy as much as any other person. I'm sure that they have protections that I can acquire for you. If not, I'm sure that my mother can arrange something." Tony nodded his thanks.

Three Hours Later

Harry couldn't fight his smile. Part of the reason was that he was about to go into Diagon Alley with his dad. A smaller part of that though, was the way that the Avengers and Jane were getting around the magics stopping Muggles from getting in. Namely by holding hands. The image of Earth's Mightiest Heroes gripping onto each other like a group of schoolchildren wasn't something that would leave Harry any time soon. "You sure we're going the right way?" Tony asked, looking around. "Cause I'm not seeing this pub you mentioned." It was also interesting to hear someone who wanted to see the Leaky Cauldron but couldn't. It made him wonder how Hermione and the other muggleborn students got there parents here. Did the professors and Hagrid fetch all of them every year? Something else to ask Hermione he supposed. Thor just chuckled and gave Jane's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I couldn't miss it." He assured Tony, leading them up the steps. Halfway up the steps, Tony came to a dead stop, looking at the invisible (from his standpoint) steps that he was on.

"I am not okay with this." He complained, looking around. "I shouldn't be in midair without knowing why." Clint grunted.

"Right there with you buddy."

"Just keep moving guys." Bruce sighed, nudging them. Tony sighed.

"Definitely going to have to make some glasses to see this stuff." He muttered, but continued up the steps all the same. Then they came to a dead stop as Thor and Harry pulled them through the doors of the Leaky Cauldron and the pub melted into view. Tony whistled.

"Okay, now I can see why this would give Fury a heart attack." Steve sighed, looking around the large pub. Bruce took off his glasses, cleaned them, and put them back on, just to make sure. Natasha remained mostly stone faced, though her eyes darted from corner to corner, assessing threats and exits.

"Damn." Clint muttered. Jane stepped away from Thor, jaw dropped, then bolted for the front door. She stuck her head out the front door, making sure she couldn't see the steps, then pulled her head back in, checking to look around the pub. She repeated this several times, then turned back and collapsed into a chair.

"I need a drink." She muttered, staring off into the middle distance. Thor patted her on the shoulder consolingly as Tony and Clint slid down into the seats next to her. Harry eyed them uncertainly, wondering if they were serious or not. Jane looked up at him and waved her hand. "Don't worry Harry, I'll be fine. Just reordering my concept of reality for the third time in as many years. Takes some adjustment." Natasha snorted, walking up and putting a hand on Clint's shoulder.

"You're taking it pretty good." She assured Jane. "I couldn't get Clint to string three words together for a week after we fought a group of werewolves in Nepal." Clint grunted.

"Alien experiments, not magic." He told a confused Thor. "Still weird. Was my first encounter with something definitely not of my world." Steve nodded as he walked up to the table.

"I met a woman in France during the War." He began. Tony looked up sharply, staring at him, and Steve snorted. "Not like that Tony." He said dryly. "It was after I'd seen the Red Skull and HYDRA's Tesseract weapons but she was...different. Schmidt was just a disfigured man. Their weapons were advanced, but the Allied scientists insisted that they were just using more advanced science." He shook his head slowly. "But she...she could deflect bullets with her bracelets. I don't know if I could react that fast. I once saw her destroy a HYDRA tank by picking up another HYDRA tank and throwing it at it. She had a lasso that could compel anyone to tell the truth and couldn't be cut." The others stared at him.

"That's new." Natasha said slowly. "Does Fury know about this?" Steve shrugged.

"No idea. I haven't asked. I only knew her for a month. She refused to leave France, said she'd left war behind and was just trying to protect her home. She was the one who taught me how to throw a shield properly actually." Tony whistled.

"Put that woman on the Olympic discus team." He said. Steve shrugged.

"She never said where she got her powers, and got very cagey when asked for a name. The other Howling Commandos took to calling her Wonder Woman."

"Alliteration!" Clint enthused. Thor frowned thoughtfully.

"I had not heard of this, nor am I familiar with an artifact such as this lasso." He said finally. "Though I confess to have never met the gods and goddesses of France before Christianity took hold." Steve blinked owlishly.

"You think she was a goddess?" He asked, staring at Thor. Thor shrugged.

"I can't think of any other being that would look human, be able to perform the feats you described, and who would be bound to one nation." He explained. "There are races from other worlds and realms who could do those things, but I can't think of any reason they would participate in one of your wars, or why they would insist on only aiding one nation." Just then Tom, the bartender of the Leaky Cauldron, walked over to the table they'd taken.

"Can I help you ladies and gentlemen?" He asked politely. Harry looked up, having forgotten that they were in a public place. Thor cleared his throat and stood up.

"No thank you, sorry. We should be on our way to Diagon Alley." He said, nodding at Harry. Tom's eyes widened and stared at Harry, then looked at Thor. He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it when Thor arched an eyebrow and nodded.

"Well I'll let you get to it then." He said, backing away quickly. Tony arched an eyebrow after him as Thor led them to the back of the pub.

"What was that about?" He asked. Harry blushed.

"I'm...famous." He muttered in embarrassment. Tony blinked, but at a stern look from Thor decided not to pursue it. They stopped at a brick wall. Harry paused, looking at the barrier, then turned anxiously to his dad. "I don't remember which bricks to tap." He hissed apologetically. Thor waved away his concern.

"Not to worry. I am possessed of *some* magic." He said dryly, pressing a hand against the wall and closing his eyes. There was a moment of nothing, than a strong wind ran through the group before the wall glowed briefly and folded in on itself. Thor grinned as the large shopping district was revealed.

Author's Notes

Thank you so, so much for reading everybody!

Alright, so first off, yes, this is long. It got away from me _ Sorry!

Secondly, yes, I'm making Ahmanet bi. Sorry everyone who was hoping for Harry/Ahmanet. I have an idea who I'll be pairing Harry up with, but he's only 12, so we'll be taking a bit before he starts dating. (It won't be Ginny, Hermione, Cho, or Diana though) And Ahmanet's main love interest *will* be Lorraine. Speaking of Ahmanet, I wasn't able to find any information as to what precisely her age was before being mummified. Her actress (Sofia Boutella who I am *NOT* convinced *ISN'T* the literal goddess of grace, beauty and being adorable) is in her early 30's but she looks like she's in her late teens. I legitimately went through the whole Mummy movie thinking she was 18, so that's what age I've put her for this story.

Also, yay! More information about Diana is brought up, even if she's not technically mentioned by name!

As for the Mandarin's rings, I do know that they are alien in nature, not magic, but I was unable to find the name of the race who created them.

And finally, a question with regards to the soon to appear Gilderoy Lockhart. How do y'all want me to handle him? I could keep him as the amoral con man he is in canon, I could make him be more tongue in cheek (think of the story Oh God Not Again) or I could make him a total badass who really has done everything he claims to have done. I'm open to all three, I have ideas I consider to be amusing for all of them so it's up to you!


	7. Chapter 7

Opening Notes

Okay, so, before we get into the chapter I thought I should address some stuff. Namely, I got a review from Visage Vengeance dressing me down for note noting the changes I've made to Harry's appearance for this story at the beginning of the chapter. I...I'm sorry. I just...I didn't consider Harry's new hair color to be all that important. I felt that it was something that needed to be addressed, because when I was pitching this story to a friend before I'd even published any of the chapters, her first question was how Thor being Harry's biological father was going to work when Harry looked so much like James. I spent some time working on how to answer that question before deciding that he had Lily's hair as well as her eyes. (And yes, I know he has other traits inherited from James with regards to physical appearance, and they'll be dealt with, but currently Harry is a malnourished preteen who's just starting puberty so I think it can wait. Though for the sake of full disclosure, I'm fan casting grown up Harry as K.J. Apa, the guy who plays Archie in Riverdale)

And...that was it. I'm sorry but I honestly don't consider the change in appearance to be a big deal. It's not a plot point, nothing is going to happen due to Harry having red hair that wouldn't have happened if he had black hair (aside from occasional jokes about him looking like a Weasley). To me it's incidental. Like how Natasha changes her hair style every movie. Or how everyone but Thor and Hulk have gone through at least one costume change since Avengers 1. It just...is. I'm sorry. (If you're wondering why I addressed Visage Vengeance by name in a chapter when I've never done so before. Simply put Visage Vengeance was the name given by a guest so I can't send them a PM like I usually do. Sorry)

Hope you like the chapter!

"Welcome, to Diagon Alley." Thor said, somewhat grandly, as the Avengers and Jane took in the spectacle before them. Bruce blinked at the large crowds which were bustling through the Alley. The crowd was likely much smaller in number than those usually gathered at Times Square, or even at a reasonably large and popular shopping mall, but by comparison the Alley was much more narrow, channeling the assembled wizards and witches into a solid stream.

"Is it always so crowded?" He asked warily. Due to his condition he was always wary of crowds and new places. It had been a long time since the Hulk had been let out on accident, but all the same he felt it was best to err on the side of caution. Thor frowned thoughtfully.

"The last time I was here it was during a war." He admitted. "So I'm afraid I'm not the best judge."

"It wasn't this crowded when Hagrid brought me last year." Harry told them. "I mean, it was pretty crowded but I don't remember it being quite this crowded." Bruce hummed thoughtfully, a reluctant look on his face. The others caught on.

"Bruce, do you want to leave?" Natasha asked carefully. "I can come with you, keep you company." Bruce looked at the others and managed a weak smile before shaking his head.

"Thanks guys. But I'll be fine." He assured them. He said this partly out of a desire not to be a bother, and partly because, for all that he kept a better lid on it than Tony, he _was_ a scientist and he was deeply curious about the new world being opened up to him. But more than any of those reasons, he wanted to be there for Harry. The two had had a similar upbringing with regards to their guardians. From the sounds of it the Dursleys hadn't been as violent as his father had been, but there was more than one way to abuse a child, and the Dursleys had most definitely done so. And while he knew that Harry had others to support him in the here and now, that he had his dad and Jane and the other Avengers, he wanted to be there and offer his support all the same. And so he would stay. Thor looked at him, then nodded.

"Very well then. First off, we should visit the bank." He said, gesturing towards the end of Diagon Alley. Tony, who'd been scrutinizing Bruce, looked at Thor.

"Wait, is the bank literally as far away from the entrance as possible?" He asked as they started walking, making their way through the crowd. As all of them were dressed in Muggle casual wear they attracted some looks, but without their uniforms on and with Harry firmly sandwiched in a pyramid of his dad, Jane, and Clint and therefore hidden from view, that was all. "Seems inconvenient."

"Makes good tactical sense though." Steve pointed out. "Keep your money away from the easy exit, make them fight their way through the crowds." Thor nodded.

"That is part of it. There's also the structural issues as well." He explained. "Gringotts, the bank, is built on top of a vast network of underground tunnels and caves. Even with magic, it would be unwise to build too much over them." Tony huffed but nodded in acceptance.

The trip to the bank was largely uneventful. The goblins did recognize Thor and, surprisingly, Tony. (The goblins had a proud tradition of making weapons and armor, and kept an eye on Muggle weapon makers that caught their attention). As a result things went by smoothly, Thor taking Harry down to his vault with Jane and most of the Avengers, while Bruce refrained upon being informed of the speed of Gringotts' carts. Tony stayed up with him, deciding to work on getting the gems Ahmanet has given him converted to money and ask about the benefits he'd get from opening a vault (Tony believed heavily in diversifying).

As they were leaving the bank, Harry was stopped by a familiar voice. "Harry!" Harry smiled and waved.

"Ron!" He exclaimed brightly, hurrying up to the gathered Weasleys. Tony blinked as the large family congregated around Harry.

"Cousins of his?" He asked Thor, eyeing the sea of redheads. Natasha snorted.

"We're not all related Tony." She said dryly, elbowing him. Thor chuckled.

"No, they're not cousins of Harry's." He told Tony. "They're just good people."

"How'd you get here?" Ron was demanding. "We tried to go to the Muggles' house to get you but there was a giant storm around the place! Was that you? Why haven't you responded to any of my letters?" Harry cocked his head to the side.

"Letters? What letters?" He asked. This had, to be perfectly honest, been a rather upsetting thing for him earlier in the summer. He hadn't received anything. Not a single letter from Ron or Hermione. The hurt had been pushed to the backseat by the revelations with regards to his dad, but now that he was in front of Ron they were being dragged up again. "You didn't send me any letters!" Ron stared at him.

"I sent you a dozen letters!" He protested. Harry just continued giving him a blank look, which made Ron huff.

"Must have been a problem with Errol. Our owl." He explained at Harry's confused look. "He's really old, so he gets tired and confused a lot. Probably dropped my letters off at the wrong house, or lost them in that storm around your place or something." Harry nodded his acceptance of this, though it didn't explain why he hadn't gotten any letters from Hermione. He didn't voice this thought though, seeing as there wasn't exactly anything Ron could do about it. As these thoughts were running through his mind, Mrs. Weasley came up next to Ron, followed by a tall, balding man that Harry assumed was Mr. Weasley.

"Hello Harry dear, how are you?" Mrs. Weasley asked kindly. Harry smiled at her.

"I'm doing good." He said. And for the first time in his life, outside of his time at Hogwarts, he actually meant it. Life _was_ good. He had a family now, even if he hadn't actually met any of his Asgardian relatives past his dad. He got to spend time with the Avengers on a regular basis. And he'd never have to stay with the Dursleys ever again. Mr. Weasley shook his hand warmly.

"Hello Harry, I'm Arthur. Ron has told us so much about you." Harry blushed slightly, still adjusting to attention that wasn't focused on something he'd done as an infant. Or more accurately, something his mother had done that he'd been the beneficiary of as an infant. Mr. Weasley's eyes darted over the gathering of adults behind Harry, his jaw dropping. "Merlin's beard! Is that Tony Stark?" He exclaimed numbly. Harry blinked, surprised that a wizard had recognized Tony.

"Dad loves Muggles." Ron murmured to Harry. "He's obsessed with them and their inventions." Mrs. Weasley, on the other hand, was examining the group with pursed lips, her maternal instincts demanding to know what Harry was doing coming out of Gringotts with a group of strange adults. Thor saw this and decided to walk up to the assembled redheads, putting his hands on Harry's shoulders and smiling his best smile. Harry smiled up at him before looking back at the Weasleys.

"Ron, this is my dad. Thor Odinson." A loud bang filled the air, and everyone's attention snapped to the source, the Avengers reacting marginally faster than anyone else. They all relaxed upon seeing the source-one of the Twins was covered in soot, holding a small, smoking box. It appeared that his deck of Exploding Snap cards had decided to...well explode in his hands.

"You're joking!" He wheezed as Mrs. Weasley let out a tut and waved her wand, cleaning off the twin's face with a wave of her wand while never taking her eyes off of Thor. Thor chuckled and shook his head.

"He is not, I assure you." He told the now clean twin. "I am the proud father of Harry." He nodded at Ron. "My son tells me that you're one of his closest friends, who helped him stop a great evil this spring. Thank you." Ron turned bright red and nodded, his eyes wide. Thor turned his attention to the Weasley parents. "He has also told me that you sent him gifts last year, on a Christmas in which he expected to receive none. You have my thanks as well for your kindness." Mr. Weasley nodded silently, almost as red as Ron, while Mrs. Weasley studied Thor intently.

"And where were you all this time?" She demanded curtly. Harry flushed.

"Mrs. Weasley..." He started softly, but Thor patted his shoulder.

"It's okay Harry. I did you and your mother a great disservice, and I deserve her scrutiny." He told his son gently before directing his attention to Mrs. Weasley. "I did not know about him into very recently." He confessed frankly. "When I left Earth I did not know that Lily was pregnant. And so I left both her and him, and I will always carry some shame for that." Mrs. Weasley studied him intently, and Thor met her gaze without flinching. Finally she nodded.

"Well, at least you acknowledge that you did wrong. That's more than many do." She said shortly before refocusing her attention on Harry. "So, Harry dear, here to do your school shopping then?" Harry nodded quickly, relieved to be past the confrontation.

"Yep!" He paused, then looked at his list. "Who's Gilderoy Lockhart though?" He asked. "Why do we need so many of his books?" It had been bothering him ever so slightly since he'd received the list. None of the books on last year's list had shared authors. The Twins and Ron groaned at his question, while Harry noticed that Mr. Weasley's smile grew a little fixed and even Percy seemed to be bracing himself for something.

"He's a very brave and accomplished wizard." Mrs. Weasley said, though she was bright red. "I'm surprised his books haven't been used as Defense Against the Dark Arts texts before honestly." She glanced quickly at her family before nodding briskly. "Well it was lovely to see you again Harry, but we've got much to do. We've got to go to our vault." She said hurriedly, gesturing at her family and getting them to move towards the bank. Harry waved at Ron, who was rolling his eyes at his mom, then did a double take. Hiding behind Mrs. Weasley was Ron's little sister Ginny. Apparently she'd been there the whole time without him realizing it. She looked at him over her shoulder and gave him a little wave before quickly whirling around. Harry waved back, a little bemused.

"Big family." Steve remarked as the doors to Gringotts closed behind the Weasleys. Thor nodded.

"With hearts to match."

"I liked the dad." Tony interjected.

"You just like him because he's the first human here to recognize you." Natasha said dryly, rolling her eyes.

"And?" Tony asked with a smirk. Natasha shook her head as they headed back up Diagon Alley.

The next hour or so was rather uneventful as they worked their way through the shops. Harry got some new robes while Tony and Clint critiqued the old fashioned apparel, trying to figure out the practicality of eschewing modern dress in favor of robes. When they went to the Apothecary so Harry could stock up on potions ingredients however, Tony stopped mocking, instead darting from barrel to barrel, dragging Bruce behind him as the scientists discussed the properties of the various ingredients, some familiar to them and others entirely unique to the Magical community. Tony ended up buying two of everything, earning him a bag of ingredients far larger than Harry's, for testing back at the Tower. Steve had left halfway through their visit, his enhanced senses overwhelmed by the smells of the Apothecary, and they found him and Natasha perusing the Quidditch shop, admiring the sleekness of the brooms on display and inspecting the gear. Harry stopped at the Owl Emporium to get some treats for Hedwig, and the others had to forcibly stop Tony from buying an owl for everyone and ten more for testing.

Eventually they came to their last stop of the day, Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore. Earlier the Avengers had been rather distracted, trying to take in everything at once. Even Clint and Natasha had been more focused on getting the general layout of the shopping district than in taking in the details. Now though, having had time to adjust, they discovered the source of the large crowd. There was a truly massive line coming out of the bookstore, made up largely of middle aged women. Clint's eyes caught the reason first, noting a poster on the window obscured by the crowd. He groaned before reading aloud. "Gilderoy Lockhart will be signing copies of his autobiography _Magical_ _Me_ today, 12:40 PM to 4:30 PM."

"Maybe we should come back tomorrow?" Bruce suggested, eying the crowd tensely. "Or go wander around regular London until he leaves?"

"Seems silly to leave when we've only got one store left to go." Tony countered. Bruce nodded his reluctant agreement to this point. Natasha examined the crowd.

"Looks like this Lockhart person is a fast writer." She said carefully. "The line's big but it's moving fairly quickly." She shrugged. "If we don't get held up too badly we should be able to get in and out in ten minutes or so." Harry quickly scanned his book list.

" _Magical Me_ isn't on here." He told the adults. "We don't even have to wait in line, we just have to get past them." There was a moment as they considered their options. Bruce sighed.

"Might as well." He said with a shrug. That decided it for the others, and the group made their way through the crowd and into the bookstore, elbowing past the gathered autograph seekers. Harry grabbed the Standard Book of Spells Grade 2 from off of a table, and was about to head deeper into the shelves to look for the Lockhart books when a man with a large camera that sent up clouds of purple smoke stepped on Tony's foot.

"Move over, this is for the _Daily Prophet!_ " The man snarled at Tony.

"The Daily what?" Tony asked irritably. Lockhart heard him. He looked up, his eyes settling on the source of the disturbance for a second before his eyes slid on across the room. He saw Harry, and stared. Then he leapt to his feet and practically shouted,

"It _can't_ be Harry Potter?" The crowd parted, excited whispering filling the air, and before even Thor could react Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front. Thor froze as this wizard he'd never met used his son for a photo op, torn between the desire to drag his son away and not wanting to make a bigger scene. Harry was clearly unhappy with his situation, but he also didn't appear to be in any physical danger and Thor didn't want to cause his son further aggravation.

The same debate ran through the minds of the Avengers as they watched events unfold. They, and the majority of the Weasley family who _were_ in the line, a platinum blonde boy, and a young girl with very bushy hair were islands of disapproval in a sea of glee as the assembled public gawked at Harry and Lockhart and applauded the man's announcement that he would be teaching at Hogwarts the upcoming year. "Something's not right." Tony said slowly, folding his arms and leaning against a display table.

"You mean besides the fact that all these people seem to love this arrogant jerk?" Jane muttered, glaring daggers at the jerk in question. Between his obvious sense of pride in himself and his disregard for Harry's obvious discomfort, the blonde wizard had made his way into Jane's 'to punch list'. Tony shrugged.

"There's that. But also, look at this crowd." He waved at the full to bursting shop. "I've seen less full Stephen King signings. The man clearly isn't hurting for publicity. And he clearly loves the spotlight. And yet he dragged Harry into full view with him." Clint shrugged.

"So? People love celebrities getting together." Tony frowned thoughtfully.

"Yeah but look around." He waved his hand at the posters of Lockhart's beaming face, and at the piles of his books. "Who puts their face on everything they make? Especially books about fighting monsters. Look at these covers, no monsters, just him looking like he's a model, not some fighting hero. Speaking as a former celebrity narcissist..." Steve snorted.

"Former?" He asked weakly. Tony pointedly ignored him and continued.

"I've been to lots of conferences and conventions and stuff. And whenever I was in the spotlight, I _never_ pulled someone up there with me if I didn't have to. And I never put my face on this much stuff. This guy's acting like Justin Hammer did." Natasha made a sudden noise of understanding, and Clint arched an eyebrow, while Steve and Bruce just looked confused. "Former competitor of mine, he's in jail now." Tony explained as Harry finally got away from Lockhart only to be accosted by the bushy haired girl. "Point is, the man was ludicrously flashy, even by my standards, and whenever he did _anything_ he wanted as many big names up there with him as possible. Because his products were garbage. He made conventional weapons just fine, but anytime he and his people tried to innovate..." he shook his head with a snort. "The point is, Hammer tried desperately to get every piece of publicity he could, to boost everything, because he knew that he wasn't going to get by on substance alone. This guy, what he just pulled with Harry? That felt like a desperation move."

On the opposite side of the bookshop, Harry wasn't pondering the psychology of Gilderoy Lockhart. He rather wanted to do his best to forget the last three minutes in fact, and after a forceful hug from Hermione he dropped his free Lockhart books into Ginny's cauldron. "I'll buy my own." He muttered.

"Bet you loved that, didn't you Potter?" Sneered an unfortunately familiar voice. Harry straightened up as he and Hermione turned to look at Draco Malfoy. " _Famous_ Harry Potter, can't even go into a _bookshop_ without making the front page."

"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" Ginny snapped. Harry realized that it was the first time she'd ever spoken in front of him.

"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Draco drawled, looking down at Ginny, who quivered angrily, her face scarlet, as Ron made his way to the cluster of preteens. "Two Weasley's in a shop?" Malfoy exclaimed with blatantly false surprise. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all this." Ron lunged forward, only barely restrained by Harry and Hermione.

"Ron, what are you doing?" Mr. Weasley asked as he and the Twins pushed through the crowd towards them. "It's too crowded in here, lets go wait outside..."

"Well well well. Arthur Weasley." A casually arrogant voice drawled. Mr. Weasley went stiff.

"Lucius." He said coldly, staring at the tall man, who was dressed in fine robes and leaning lightly on a cane.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear." Mr. Malfoy said with a slight smirk. "All those raids...I hope they're paying you overtime for it." He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted a very old and battered copy of _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration,_ turning it over in his hands. "Obviously not." He said with a chuckle. "Dear me, what's the point in being a disgrace to wizards if they don't even pay you well for it?" Mr. Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Hermione, before he could say anything in response though, a deep voice cut through.

"Ah, Lucius." Thor said calmly, placing his hand protectively on Harry's shoulder. "I haven't seen you in quite some time." Lucius' face tightened and lost some of its color. He cleared his throat, eyes darting from Thor to Harry and back again.

"Prince Thor. I did not expect to see you amongst wizards again in my lifetime. To what do we owe the honor of your presence?"

"Same as you actually." Thor said, nodding at Draco, who was staring at Thor with obvious shock. "Taking my son school shopping." Lucius' eyes widened marginally.

"Your son." He repeated carefully, looking at Harry once more. "I see. Well then, I don't wish to hold you up any further." He carefully put Ginny's book back into her cauldron, nodding at Thor carefully. "Good day to you Prince Thor." He turned and walked briskly away, one hand on Draco's shoulder as he guided him away. Thor watched him leave, a look of distaste on his face.

Mr. Weasley looked at Thor in surprise. "I didn't know you knew Lucius Malfoy." He said. Thor shrugged.

"We met once, halfway through my courtship with Lily." He told him. "He tried to persuade me of the righteousness of the Death Eater's cause, that I should help Voldemort. I declined. Strongly." He chuckled. "I suppose I made an impression." Mr. Weasley chuckled as well, remembering the emotions that the normally controlled Lucius had allowed to show on his face.

"It certainly looks that way." He agreed, hefting Ginny's cauldron as the group headed out of the bookshop, the Avengers, the Grangers, and the other Weasleys joining them as they exited.

Author's Notes

Thank you for reading everybody!

Don't have a whole lot to say about this chapter. Fairly straightforward and basic I think. I know the last two chapters didn't flow super well, I probably should have split up chapter six into at least two chapters. Likewise, I could have found a better way to transition to Rhodey's encounter with the Mandarin. So I'm trying to be more concise and centered. Hope it worked!


	8. Chapter 8

There was a long moment of silence, and then Hermione slumped back in her chair, staring at Harry. Ron was likewise sitting somewhat, well, slack. The three friends were sitting around a small table in the Leaky Cauldron, their parents, siblings and...Harry wasn't entirely sure what the Avengers were to him. Friends?Surrogate uncles and a surrogate aunt?

Regardless, the three had been given some space to discuss the events of the past week, with the adults and Weasley siblings situated around them, watching but also talking amongst themselves.

"Y...you're a demigod." Hermione said weakly. Harry shrugged self consciously.

"I mean, I guess. I haven't really thought about it." He admitted. "It's not like I've called down any lightning or started tossing 'thous' and 'verilys' into my sentences. I just...I'm just glad to have a family." Ron shook his head. He'd heard Harry introduce Thor as his dad obviously but that had been when he was standing up, surrounded by his family and a crowd, with a full list of things he had to do that day. Now that he had nothing to do except take in the full weight of Harry's news, the words were hitting him more strongly.

"Bloody hell mate that's...that's some news." He said softly. "Are you going to tell people at Hogwarts?" Harry shook his head.

"I don't know. I hadn't even thought about it." He admitted. "Maybe. I don't know. Malfoy knows, so I'm sure all the Slytherins will know by the end of the welcoming feast." Harry let out a groan. "Things are going to get really complicated this year." Ron let out a dry, somewhat hollow laugh.

"You're telling me. But don't worry, we won't tell anyone unless you say it's okay, right Hermione?" Hermione blinked, startled out of her own rabbit hole of thoughts, then nodded.

"Yes, absolutely." Harry smiled.

"Thanks guys." He looked over at Hermione and opened his mouth, then stopped and thought it over. He had to be careful about this. Hermione was his friend, and had promised to keep his parentage a secret until he was ready to talk about it. He didn't want to accidentally upset her, because she deserved better. But he still had to ask.

"Hermione, why didn't you send me any letters?" He asked carefully. Hermione frowned.

"What are you talking about? I sent you a letter every week." Harry blinked.

"You did?" Hermione nodded.

"Yes!" She paused. "But...I did send them through Muggle post. Perhaps they got lost?" Her eyes widened. "Do you think your aunt and uncle threw them away?" Harry frowned back. That was a definite possibility. Their destruction of his Hogwarts letters has proven that they were more than willing to destroy his mail. But at the same time, it was usually him or Dudley who'd gotten the mail in the mornings. Surely Dudley would have taunted him with the letters if he'd been the one to find them? He couldn't exactly see Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia getting up early to steal his mail but leaving all the rest alone, at least not right before he left, when he knew he was a wizard and wasn't actively being punished for anything. And then there was the fact that he hadn't gotten any of Ron's letters either. Something seemed wrong to him. It might just be harmless coincidence but...it might not be. He just didn't know. And he _really_ didn't like not knowing.

ooOOooOOoo

At the table directly behind them, Tony was turning a galleon over in his fingers. "And this is pure gold?" He repeated incredulously. Mr. Weasley nodded, looking a little confused.

"Yes. Well, I mean, I'm fairly certain. I've never cut one in half to check because, well, you couldn't exactly spend it then, could you?" Tony shook his head and picked up a sickle.

"And this is pure silver? Not nickel or tin or steel or something?" Mr. Weasley nodded again and Tony whistled. "Depending on the quality of the metal, you could make a pretty nice ring out of _one_ of these coins." He said thoughtfully. "Sell it at a pawn shop, make one hundred dollars, maybe more..." Mr. Weasley blinked. The thought had never occurred to him. Then he shook his head.

"The goblins would never stand for that. They mine the metal and forge the coins. I have no doubt that the enchantments they put on them would resist even any invention of yours Mr. Stark." Tony waved a hand.

"Call me Tony." He said casually. "You're interesting, and only boring people call me Mr. Stark." Mr. Weasley blinked, then gave a small smile.

"Well then, call me Arthur."

ooOOooOOoo

At a different part of the round of tables, Bruce was sitting with his back to the wall, drinking from a cup of tea. Natasha sat near him, though she was largely talking to the Grangers, asking about the revelation that their daughter was a witch and how things had worked out. Bruce was content to sit quietly, enjoying the calm energy of the Leaky Cauldron. He didn't often get moments like this. Not that he didn't feel safe in the Tower, or welcome, because he did. But it had been years since he'd been able to sit in a quiet restaurant and just enjoy. Aside from the crowds, there was just the fact that being in public made him a target for those who would want to use the Hulk as a weapon. Here though? In a magically hidden English pub, where nobody recognized him? For the first time in forever, he could let some of his tension go.

He was a bit too relaxed in fact, and so he was deeply startled when Harry's friend, the bushy haired witch Hermione, plopped into the seat opposite him, her eyes gleaming. "You're Bruce Banner!" She breathed, staring at him in fascination. Bruce blinked and carefully set his tea cup down. Behind the girl he could see Harry and the other redheaded boy, Ron if Bruce's memory served, both staring at Hermione in exasperation. _Profound_ exasperation.

"That's right. And you're Harry's friend Hermione, right?" She nodded.

"I've read everything you ever published!" She told him eagerly. Bruce blinked again.

"Everything?" He asked in surprise. She was twelve! Hermione shrugged.

"Everything I could find on the internet at least." She clarified.

"And you understood it?" Hermione gave a small frown.

"Not all of it." She admitted reluctantly, seemingly upset with the fact that, at the age of twelve, aspects of some of the most advanced scientific research of the age eluded her. "There were some concepts in there that I didn't understand, but I'm sure I could, I just need more time to study." Bruce leaned back in his chair, remembering conversations he'd had back in college with his lab partner Reed Richards as he listened to Hermione. He wondered if he should get her involved in some sort of correspondence course with Reed. Maybe he could convince their old mentor Hank Pym to try his hand at tutoring again.

"Do you think you'll be able to find that time?" He asked. "Aren't you studying magic right now?" Hermione got a fierce look in her eyes.

"I'll make time." She said firmly. "There's no reason I can't learn magic and science." Bruce chuckled.

"No, I suppose there's not." He agreed. He was definitely going to have to talk to Reed about this.

ooOOooOOoo

Thor was drumming his fingers on the table when the bartender, a wrinkled old wizard, got his attention. "Excuse me sir." He said politely. "Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak with you. He's in the first room upstairs on your left." Thor frowned. He'd stated in his letter that he would meet with the old mortal wizard tomorrow, not today. Tomorrow Harry would be safely in the Tower, an ocean, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and a demigod with deep anger management problems all protecting him from the Headmaster. Instead Harry was here, in the same building as said headmaster whom Harry still trusted implicitly. Not an ideal scenario.

Still, Thor admitted that he was being a little irrational. While he had his...issues with the way the man had handled his son's life, he acknowledged that in all likelihood none of it had been done with malicious intent. As yet, Albus Dumbledore fell into the obscure category of 'potential allies who need a good scolding'. All the same, he was reluctant to take his eyes off of Harry, who looked dreadfully small and vulnerable, even among friends. They were really going to have to do something about his clothes Thor noted. Only the fact that Harry had yet to meet Pepper and Darcy explained how he was still in baggy hand me downs.

Near him, Clint let out a grunt. It was a distinct grunt, one Thor recognized from stakeouts. It meant 'I've got my eye on the target'. And while the situation was vastly more benign than when it was usually used (so far at least) Thor got the message. His son was safe, and would be as long as they remained in the pub, at the very least. He nodded his thanks to Clint and headed up the stairs, stopping and knocking on the door the bartender had said. There was a long moment of silence, and then the door opened.

A tall and slender man stood before Thor, sporting plum colored robes and a long white beard that reached down to the man's waist. His eyes were bright blue, hidden behind half moon spectacles. They were clear, and examined Thor intently. "Prince Thor." He said finally, nodding courteously and stepping aside. "Please do come in." Thor nodded back and stepped inside.

"Professor Dumbledore." He said politely. "I was under the impression that we'd agreed to meet tomorrow." Dumbledore gave a small shrug.

"I learned that you were in Diagon Alley today." He explained casually. "I'm afraid that there is quite a lot that I must do to get the school ready for the upcoming year, so I thought it best to cut to chase as it were." Thor gave a slight frown, but nodded his acceptance of this reasoning. Dumbledore gestured for him to sit in one of the armchairs he'd conjured, and he did so. Dumbledore sat across from him, pressing his fingers together. "I must say, that is an impressive piece of weather magic you worked on the Dursley's home. Neither I nor the most experienced members of my staff were able to dispel the storm. Indeed, I wasn't even able to weaken it." He chuckled. "Filius, our Charms Teacher, was most impressed." Thor shrugged unconcernedly.

"Weather magic isn't exactly something I have trouble with Professor." He said in a matter of fact time. "May I ask when you arrived to test my storm?" Dumbledore frowned slightly.

"Roughly twelve hours after you left if Petunia's account is to be believed." He admitted. "An alert was given when you arrived at the Dursley home, but I was unfortunately locked in a meeting with the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and as a result I was not made aware of your intervention until it was too late to act." Thor gave him an unimpressed look, and Dumbledore sighed. "I agree, my response time was not...ideal." Thor nodded curtly, but decided not to push the point further. The old mortal clearly wished that he had done better, berating him would accomplish nothing.

"And now?" He asked instead. Dumbledore gave another small shrug.

"Harry was placed with the Dursleys because they were believed to be his only blood relatives." He said frankly. "The manner in which Lily died meant that such a bond came with strong protections, so long as he lived with them." Thor frowned again, and Dumbledore waved a hand. "Rest assured, I have no desire to force you to return Harry to the Dursley home. Whether you keep him in the Avengers Tower or take him to Asgard, Harry's safety is not in doubt." He paused thoughtfully. "Given that you are his biological father, it's likewise possible that the wards will transfer to your dwelling. I confess to being unclear on whether or not those protections are transferable. It was never a possibility before now, so I didn't research it the way that I perhaps should have." He let out a heavy sigh. "That seems to be a theme for my decisions regarding Harry I'm afraid."

"Did you know how the Dursleys treated him?" Thor asked bluntly.

"Did I know the specifics? No, of course not. But I did believe them to be mediocre guardians? Yes. It took extraordinary measures to get him his first letter, he was very skinny, and his Muggle clothing fit poorly." Dumbledore admitted. Thor growled.

"Then why did you leave him there?" He demanded.

"It was, in my opinion, the safest place. I was not aware of the full extent of the damage they were doing, and so I felt that summers spent with a pair of less than ideal guardians was preferable to putting him somewhere with far less powerful protections."

"Why?" Dumbledore took a deep breath and leaned forward.

"Voldemort lives." He told Thor frankly. "He may be no more than a wraith at present, but he can still plot. In fact, your son encountered him last year. It was the protection I spoke of that saved him." Thor frowned.

"Yes, Harry mentioned his adventure with the Philosopher's Stone last year." Thor said slowly. "I would very much like to know why you felt that a school was a good place to place such an object."

"I felt that nobody would look for it in Hogwarts." Dumbledore confessed. "And when I learned that Voldemort had possessed a member of my staff, it was too late to move the Stone safely. There simply wasn't a place with defenses sufficient to guard it, the vault it'd been stored in was stripped bare when it was emptied, and the specific vault was already known by Voldemort. If it makes any difference, I had already begun construction of a new vault to which it could be transferred this summer." Thor grunted.

"I see. And the troll?" Dumbledore looked troubled.

"As a member of the staff Quirrel had access to the wards. It would not have been difficult for him to let the troll in. That being said, I confess that I'm uncertain of how he managed to procure a troll. They're not native to the area, and to the best of my knowledge he never left the grounds that day." Thor frowned.

"You suspect an accomplice."

"It is the most likely explanation for the events of last Halloween." Dumbledore said simply. Thor nodded reluctantly.

"I agree. I shall alert the others to this possibility." He paused, then nodded and stood up. "Your answers have satisfied me Professor. Rest assured that Asgard will not seek redress from you with regards to how my son was raised." Dumbledore nodded his thanks, and Thor turned and left the room. It was time to get his son back across the Atlantic.

Author's Notes

Thank you for reading everybody!

I'm trying out adding breaks between scenes, hence the o's. Let me know if you like it or if it's too jarring please!

Agh, writing Dumbledore is hard. Not just because of his speech patterns but because I have to decide how people react to him. The problem with the first two books being children's books, with only the logic of a fairy tale to guide them, is that it raises deep questions about Dumbledore's competence and morality. But the later books make it clear that he tried his best, so I don't want to bash him, but I don't want to not address his mistakes either. I hope I struck a good balance!

Ahmanet and Lorraine will be coming back next chapter, as will The Mandarin!


	9. Chapter 9

Hey everybody! So...I wound up taking a hiatus for a little over a year...sorry! I didn't expect that to happen (as the several of you who took the time to shoot me a PM asking about the lack of a new chapter can attest, given how frequently I promised a new chapter would come out 'soon'). My life...things went bad. I won't bore or bother you with details just...it got bad. Really, really bad. So I wasn't able to write any new chapters, even though I kept trying to write one. I can't promise you that I'll do a chapter every week from here on out, but I can promise that I won't take another year between chapters. And I would really like to thank everybody who favorited/followed this story during that year.

Alright, so first things first, I want to acknowledge something that I really should have acknowledged previously-this story is inspired by _Child of the Storm_ by Nimbus Llewelyn. It's a good series of stories, check it out if you want a different take on Harry as Thor's kid.

On a different subject, a ton of stuff has happened since the last chapter. First and most relevant-Disney went and bought Fox! So, uhm, in light of that...the X-Men are getting put in this story now. We'll start small, only one mutant for the current arc (she's appearing in this chapter actually), but more will be coming. And now my decision to include Johnny Storm back in chapter 4 is justified! Whoo! He'll be played by Sam Claflin by the way, in case any of you were curious. And I totally meant to have that be the fan cast the whole time! I totally didn't intend to have him be Michael B. Jordan, then screwed up and wrote Johnny as having blonde hair and blue eyes! The fantastic Mr. Jordan being in _Black Panther_ totally didn't save my bacon, and I certainly don't have to stand for such unfounded allegations!

Marvel released 4 new entries to the MCU, that's neat. Oddly enough, the only one that will have any real impact on this story is my least favorite one, _Thor: Ragnarok_. I mean, _Black Panther_ will definitely shape how I write Wakanda once they start getting involved because it was awesome and their version of M'Baku is great, and _Infinity War_ will shape how I write Thanos and the color of the Infinity Stones, but it'll be a long time before we get to the point in the story where those things start happening. _Ant-Man and the Wasp_ was actually a really enjoyable movie, but I'm not certain how to incorporate those characters yet, so nothing much changed on that front. And I'm not going to be adapting the plots for any of these movies, we'll be well off the rails by then. I'm likewise quite off the rails for _Captain Marvel_ apparently and without the excuse of butterfly effect given that my story starts after the first _Captain Marvel_ movie is set to take place, but screw it. I have my own plans for the good Captain and I'm sticking to them.

On the DC front...well, not much has changed. Diana and the Squad are the only DCEU characters who are definitely getting in. Other DC characters will be getting in, but not necessarily in their DCEU versions. Or even other existent versions. Still no idea who will be playing Clark, especially with Henry Cavill out just as he was getting good. Depending on how _Aquaman_ goes I'll be able to tell you what version Arthur will be at the very least.

Well, that's everything I can think of that needs to be said before we get to the actual story. Thank you again for the story, and please forgive me for the long hiatus!

OoOoOoOoO

Thor was walking out of the room in which he'd met with Dumbledore when Natasha came up next to him. "We need to talk." She said softly, holding up a thin, shabby old black book with no words on the cover or spine. Thor frowned in confusion and curiosity.

"Where did you get that?" He asked slowly. He didn't think she'd had any wizarding money, so she hadn't bought the book at Flourish and Blotts.

"The blonde man with the cane put this in the Weasley girl's cauldron." Natasha told him flatly. "Well, a book she was keeping in the cauldron." She corrected with a shrug. "Clint and I saw him do it, and he grabbed it, but he's keeping an eye on Harry so I brought it up." She held up the book with a frown on her face. "I don't know much about magic, or that man, but something about this book feels…off. Wrong." Thor frowned. Natasha's instincts were usually correct, and Lucius Malfoy was not a good person. He took the book from her and his eyes immediately narrowed as his skin made contact with the old leather. Natasha was right, the book felt wrong. He quickly put in one of his pockets.

"Thank you for bringing this to me." Natasha cocked an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Thor shook his head.

"I don't know." He admitted. "After we return to the Tower, once Harry is settled, I shall make a visit to Asgard. My mother will know." It was a safe bet. Frigga knew most magics of the Nine Realms. Natasha nodded and headed back downstairs, Thor frowning in consternation as he felt small waves of darkness from the book, attempting to slither into his brain. He doubt he'd even notice were he mortal, it was subtle and quiet, but it was there. He turned and followed after Natasha, wanting to get back to his son and Jane. He'd just have to make sure that neither got a hold of the book.

OoOoOoOoO

 **Avengers' Tower**

Ahmanet was sitting on a couch in the theater room, staring at a 'documentary' on Ancient Egypt in consternation. It was remarkably exasperating, watching people make statements about aspects of her home that she didn't recognize. She wasn't sure if it was just that so much had changed to her kingdom after she was sealed away or if enough information had been lost to cause this recontextualizing or if this was just bad scholarship, but she was severely tempted to reveal herself to the world and set the record straight. Thor had, after all, so the odds of her being immediately dismissed as a hoax seemed slim.

It was at that moment, lying on the couch, yelling corrections at the television, with her hand in a bag of potato chips, that Lorraine walked into the room. She took one look at the immortal princess, then shook her head. "JARVIS, television off, lights on." The agent ordered, walking briskly down the aisle to where Ahmanet was lounging.

"Why did you do that?" Ahmanet asked with a frown, twisting on the couch without fully sitting up. Lorraine arched an eyebrow.

"This isn't helpful or productive." The agent said flatly. "The fact that you can no longer claim your throne is not an excuse to become a couch potato." Ahmanet blinked in confusion at the expression for a moment before remembering what it meant.

"What would you have me do?" She demanded with a frustrated frown.

"You need to socialize more." Lorraine said bluntly. "The people who live in this tower aren't enough to acclimate you to modern society. You need to be with people closer to your physical age, and common people in general." Ahmanet just blinked, cocking her head to the side.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I've enrolled you in high school." The immortal princess' double irises widened and she sat up straight on the couch. "Midtown School of Science and Technology to be precise."

"That seems like a remarkably bad idea." Ahmanet replied slowly. "Are you even empowered to make that decision?"

"My superiors agreed with my proposal before I set about enrolling you." Lorraine shot back smoothly. "This will get you out of the tower, out among people, socializing and acclimating to your new environment." Ahmanet huffed and narrowed her eyes.

"You're not allowing me to get out of this, are you?" She asked slowly. Lorraine smirked and shook her head.

"You need this."

OoOoOoOoO

 **At the Leaky Cauldron**

Thor smiled down at his son. "It's time to go Harry." He said gently, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. Harry looked at him, face falling slightly, but nodded reluctantly.

"See you guys on the train then." The young boy said, standing up once his father removed his hand.

"Definitely." Ron said firmly. "I'd say I'd write you but...I don't think Errol could make it across the Atlantic." He shrugged sheepishly, his face tinged with pink like it did when he was forced to acknowledge a negative consequence of his family not having much money.

"Don't worry about it, it's only two weeks." Harry told him. "It'll give us more to talk about on the train." Hermione frowned thoughtfully.

"Do you have an email address Harry?" She asked. Harry blinked.

"No, I guess not. But I can probably make one." He said, looking up at his dad, who shrugged.

"I see no reason why not. Perhaps we can get Tony to work on a computer that will resist magic, he'll take it as a worthy challenge." Harry nodded. From what he'd seen of Tony, that felt likely. Hermione nodded firmly and pulled a notebook out of her pocket, along with a pen. She quickly scrawled out her email address and tore out the sheet of paper, handing it to Harry.

"Here. When you get your email set up, send me a message." She told him before looking at Ron. "And Ron, if there's anything you want to tell Harry and not wait for the train ride, send me the owl and I'll get it to Harry." Ron blinked in surprise, and a small amount of confusion as to what precisely was happening, then nodded.

"Okay, sure." He said, deciding to just go along with it and assume that Hermione knew what she was talking about. It was a course of action that had served him well last year, after the whole troll incident.

As they left the Leaky Cauldron, Thor looked at his son. "Did you have a good time son?" Harry nodded firmly.

"It was good to see Ron and Hermione again. And the rest of the Weasleys too. Especially after I didn't get any letters this summer, I was worried they'd forgotten about me." He frowned slightly at that. That still bothered him. Both Ron and Hermione swore up and down that they had both sent lots of letters, and that they had started to get worried about the lack of response from Harry. Ron and the Twins had apparently even stolen their family's flying car (Harry couldn't believe that Ron hadn't mentioned that his family had a _flying car_ once last year, even Hermione didn't know wizards had flying cars. Apparently Mr Weasley had made it. He'd have to ask his dad to tell Tony about it, see if he'd invented something like that already). They'd wanted to go and get Harry, bring him to the Weasley home, but the storm his father had put around the Dursley house as punishment for the way they'd treated him had kept them away.

"Why isn't anyone asking if I had fun?" Tony complained, a large bag slung over one shoulder, filled with his purchases from the apothecary. He'd tried to get Steve to carry it for him, but had been rejected.

"I'd say it's because you're not the kid here, but…" Clint snarked with a smirk and a shrug. Tony huffed and turned up his nose, feigning injured dignity. As they reached the secluded spot where they'd landed the Quinjet, the repurposed parking structure attached to Stark Industries' London Office, Thor paused, considering. The book Natasha had given him, the one Lucius Malfoy had been attempting to sneak into Hogwarts for reasons unknown, weighed heavily in his pocket. He knelt down so that he was eye level with Harry.

"Harry, I have business on Asgard." He said gently. "Do you feel comfortable returning home without me, or would you rather I wait until after we return to the Tower?" Harry paused, looking at his father, and then at the others, pensively. Eventually he nodded. The Avengers and Jane had been nothing but kind to him after all, and it was only an hour. He'd have to get used to not being with his father for much longer once school started anyway.

"I can ride with them." He said finally before pausing. "Just...come back soon, okay?" Thor smiled and gave Harry a soft pat on the shoulder.

"I promise you I will return shortly. I simply need to have an artifact looked at."

"We'll take good care of him big guy." Clint assured Thor as Jane herded Harry onto the Quinjet.

"Thank you my friend. Hopefully I will have news when I return."

OoOoOoOoO

 **The Royal Palace of Asgard**

Thor followed behind his mother, a frown on his face as she strode calmly through the halls of the palace. "Mother, where are we..." He began, confused. Frigga hadn't spoken since he'd handed her the dark book. She'd stared at the item for a moment, a hard look on her face, then turned abruptly and walked deeper into the palace. At first Thor had been at a loss as to their destination, but now he suspected where they were going and he was even more confused because why would they be going _there_? Frigga waved a hand, utterly unconcerned, as they entered the dungeons, before coming to a stop at the first and largest cell.

Loki, youngest Prince of Asgard, looked up from the book he was currently reading, an eyebrow arched at his mother and brother. "Well well." He drawled, setting down the book and casually walking up to the front of his cell. "I did not expect this." Loki looked at Frigga, then focused on Thor. "It's been what, a full year without a single visit?" He asked with smirk. "And now here you are. What could be so pressing?"

"Don't look to me for answers brother." Thor said shortly, giving Frigga a side eyed look. "It was not my decision to come here." A flash of...something, went across Loki's face as he processed this.

"I see." He looked back at their mother. "And why would you come here physically mother?" Frigga held up the book.

"Thor brought this from Midgard. A human artifact one of his compatriots discovered. I wished to receive your opinion on its nature." Loki's eyebrows raised. A new book? One that had caught the attention of the most powerful sorceress in Asgard? That was an intriguing prospect. He stepped away from the walls of his cell.

"By all means." To his surprise, the whole wall dissolved, not merely a piece big enough for the book. To his further surprise, Frigga did not set the book down or slide it along the floor, or anything of the sort. She tossed it at him, a light underhand throw.

Thor watched Loki's reactions intently. It was rare to see his brother at a loss, as he most certainly was when their mother decided to literally throw the book at her youngest. But as the book sailed towards him, Loki's face shifted, a look of disgust growing as it got closer. The dark haired young god took a careful sidestep, dodging it with a look of pure revulsion, as if Frigga had lobbed the festering, maggot ridden corpse of a rat at him rather than a book. For him to react so strongly as he had, the book was more than Thor's limited skill had been able to detect.

"Why would you bring that...abomination in here?" Loki demanded, pacing his cell in a huff, but carefully avoiding the 'abomination' as he did so.

"I wished to see how you'd react." Frigga told him frankly. "To gauge where you stand my son." Thor looked from one to the other in bewilderment. He had no idea what was happening at the moment. "Take pity on your brother," Frigga continued, a slight smile on her face as she detected Thor's confusion. "And tell us what you think it is." Loki shot her an exasperated look.

"That is a human horcrux." Loki spat, jabbing a finger at the tome in question. "A vile piece of magic." He turned and looked directly at Thor. "A human ripped off a piece of their soul and placed it in a magical object like the book in order to prolong their life on the mortal coil." Thor blinked rapidly as he processed this information. That book had a soul inside of it. Suddenly he recalled how he'd gotten a hold of it. That Natasha and Clint had caught Lucius attempting to smuggle it into Hogwarts.

"Is it actively dangerous?" He asked sharply. Frigga grimaced.

"It shouldn't be. A horcrux is difficult to create. They are generally incredibly durable, but that's all."

"Not everything is as it should be." Loki warned, nudging the book with his toe. "I sense sentience, and an urge to find new form. Compulsion spells to make a being pick it up and write in it, to pour out their soul. I would say the goal is for the shard of soul in the book to gain a new body and leave the book behind. This isn't a vault, it's a weapon." Frigga paused, then raised her left hand, making a beckoning gesture with her hand. The horcrux flew to her hand, the wall of the cell reforming as it did so. Thor was suddenly struck with the realization that Loki hadn't made a single move to attempt escape. He wondered if that had been another test on their mother's part or if Loki simply hadn't felt the odds were in his favor. His brother had already proved less far gone than he'd thought, given his unadulterated disgust with the horcrux. "Where did you find such a thing?" Loki demanded.

"Your brother brought it to me." Frigga said absently. Her attention was focused on the book, turning it over in her hands and staring at it intently.

"A mortal was attempting to smuggle it into my son's school. He hid it in a child's belongings." Another look, an expression of something Thor couldn't determine, flashed across Loki's face.

"Your son?" Loki asked, his voice softer than usual. Thor nodded solemnly.

"His name is Harry. He's twelve years old. A wizard." Loki snorted as he put the pieces together and deduced who the mother was.

"I did warn you that blightweed was not infallible." He said teasingly, a smirk on his face. Thor chuckled and shook his head.

"You did." He admitted. Their eyes met, and for a moment their old bond was visible to any observers. That moment did not last, both quickly looking away. "Did you find something else Mother?" Thor asked quickly in attempt to move on.

"Merely a few defensive spells. The book is virtually impervious to all forms of physical damage and most mortal spells." Thor blinked. That implied that the book would make ideal armor for his son, Jane, and the others if they could replicate those defenses. It would look ridiculous, but from the sounds of things it would be worth it. "But only mortal spells." Frigga continued, sounding a little smug. She placed a hand on the cover and then, without chanting or an artifact for aid, _ripped_ , pulling her hand from the book and clenching a struggling black mass in it. She let the book fall to the ground, focusing her attention on the mass. There was a moment of silence as Frigga contemplated the thing, before her hand burst into hellfire, black fire consuming the thing without leaving even a mark on Frigga. She nodded firmly. "It is done. This book is now merely a book. And the horcrux is destroyed. Unfortunately my skill with soul magics is not enough to identify who ripped their soul apart to create it in the first place. It has been some time since I did a careful visit to the mortal wizarding groups, but traditionally horcruxes have been difficult things to create, and even more difficult to learn of. Most consider it too vile to speak of." Thor scowled. Lucius Malfoy had tried to smuggle an object like _that_ into his son's school? Then he paused. Lucius Malfoy had tried to smuggle an object like that into _his own son's school_. That didn't add up. Apart from basic parental instincts, Lucius was as obsessed with blood as the old mortal kings, and would be unlikely to send such an item to the same location as his only heir unless he had reason to believe the boy wouldn't come to harm.

It would appear that he needed to have a talk with Lucius Malfoy. How to go about doing so would be a problem though. Judging by the way Lucius had been dressed and the way he and his son had behaved, the Malfoy family was still wealthy and, at the very least, not pariahs. That meant that the Ministry of Magic would be unhappy if he arrived at Lucius' home in a crack of thunder and forced the truth out of the man. And while he himself would not be bothered by that, it could cause problems for his son, and he'd rather avoid that. Harry seemed rather enamored with Hogwarts, it having been the first place he felt safe and happy, and while Thor hoped to provide him with many such places in the future, losing his first would still hurt him.

In a perfect world Thor would send Loki to do the task. But that was sadly not an option. The past few minutes had given him hope that it would become an option sooner than he'd expected, but for now it still remained off the table. His friends, Sif and the Warriors Three, would cause the same difficulties as he would. Heimdall was subtle, but could not leave his post. Clint and Natasha would undoubtedly be able to ambus Lucius and interrogate him, but odds were that Malfoy Manor would have ways to avoid Muggle detection like the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley. Possibly traps they wouldn't be able to see either, much like how Muggles couldn't see Dementors.

Thor frowned. This...was not a good situation. He'd have to think about this.

OoOoOoOoO

 **Midtown School of Science and Technology**

Ahmanet blinked as she wandered around the grounds of her new school. Apparently Lorraine (or perhaps some underling, the princess wasn't entirely sure how Lorraine spent her days) had worked out a full schedule for her already. Right now she was walking through the halls after the final class had let out, staring at a map and a schedule and trying to work out a proper route for when she was supposed to start class in three days. Apparently it was a Friday, which meant that the next two days would be free of school. Normally she'd be supervised by a staff worker or another student, but Lorraine had pulled some strings to allow her to do this more or less on her own. 'More or less' because someone was clearly following her. She wasn't sure who, it was more of a sense than any sighting, nor was she sure why. She was currently wearing a baggy white sweater and a lot of special SHIELD makeup, so her tattoos were concealed. She was likewise wearing very large sunglasses that ensured her eyes were hidden, meaning that she _should_ look like any other young woman her physical age. More to the point, she never saw the same person in the mostly empty hallways twice, further confusing the issue. All the evidence showed that she probably wasn't being followed, that there was no reason for anyone to be following her, but her instincts spoke otherwise.

She continued through the school, eventually stopping in an outdoor courtyard of sorts that was dotted with tables, an extension of the 'cafeteria' (she wasn't familiar with that particular word, she'd have to ask Harry. He never made her feel foolish for not grasping the modern world). As she looked around, attempting to get her bearings and plotting out the best course based on how long it had taken her to arrive at this point after entering, a young woman roughly her physical age walked over to her. The stranger was tall. Taller than her at the very least, though not quite so tall as Lorraine. She walked with the grace and air of nobility, pale and clad in a white shirt and white slacks, her hair long, straight, and golden. Ahmanet blinked as the girl stopped directly in front of her.

"Hello. I'm Emma Frost. Welcome to Midtown School of Science and Technology."

OoOoOoOoO

And that is where I leave you my friends! With the introduction of new characters, two of whom would probably get along way too well and thus should never meet! Ahmanet is about to be dragged into her own clique of young heroes, so that should be interesting. Oh, and if you were wondering, the casting for Emma Frost in this story is Elizabeth Gillies. I thank you once again for your patience and apologize once more for the unexpected hiatus! Please read, review, and comment!


	10. Chapter 10

Ahmanet blinked and cocked her head to the side. "Oh, hello. I'm Ahmanet. Do you have summer school as well?" The blonde shook her head with a small snort.

"No, I just have some friends who do." She said, an air of smug amusement to her tone. "As for you though...I've never seen you before. What on earth did you do to get sentenced to summer school the minute you arrived?" Ahmanet gave a slight shrug, recalling the line Lorraine had given her.

"I am an immigrant, recently arrived from Egypt." She recited. "This is a way for me to catch up and adjust to the American education system." Emma's lips twitched, as though fighting a smile. Her response had been a bit wooden Ahmanet supposed, she'd have to work on that in the future. But the blonde seemed more amused than suspicious, so no harm done for the moment. Still, it would pay to be cautious in the future, practice the lines in front of a mirror like she'd done when feigning happiness at her half-brother's birth. She hadn't realized that this summer school was generally a punishment though, she'd have to have words with Lorraine about that.

"Well, in that case Miss Ahmanet, would you like a guide?" Emma asked, waving at the school around them. "In general I think trying to find your way through a new place with just a map is more difficult than it should be, and my friends won't be out for a while yet." Ahmanet blinked, surprised, then nodded.

"That would be nice, thank you." She said politely. Emma gave a smile. It was, for the most part, a perfectly normal and unsuspicious smile, but there was a hint of triumph to it that, while well hidden, Ahmanet recognized from her own reflection. There wasn't any obvious malice, but still, she'd have to keep an eye on this blonde.

OoOoOoOoO

 **Avengers Tower**

Harry covered his eyes with an arm, blinking rapidly. He'd been sitting on the landing pad of the Tower, closer to the sitting room but not quite inside, waiting for his father to return. As such he was very close to the pillar of rainbow light that was the bifrost when it made contact, burning a runic patch into the landing pad. A very specific, specially reinforced and already burned portion of the pad, designed specifically to let Thor return directly from Asgard without destroying the landing pad. It had taken Tony a lot of trial and error to get it that durable (his family's complex of warehouses upstate was currently full of broken concrete covered in burned runes) but everyone was reasonably sure that it'd work out.

As Thor strode out of the light his face was drawn, marred by concern and indecision, but he quickly brightened as his son ran to him. "Harry! How was the flight back from London?" He asked, throwing his arm (gently) around his young son and leading him inside, carefully keeping the fidgety twelve year old away from the ledges (he'd have to talk to Tony about whether or not guard rails would be feasible).

"It was fine." Harry said with a shrug. Nothing special had happened, aside from a minor mess when Jane had accidentally knocked over his stack of books in her excitement to study a wizarding textbook. That's where she was currently actually, set up in Thor's suite pouring over Harry's first year textbooks. He didn't need them anymore, aside from _A History of Magic_ , and the entry level stuff was probably better anyway, so she was going at them with a highlighter and stack of sticky notes. "How's Asgard? Can I visit it soon?" Thor nodded with a slight smile.

"Very soon. Over the winter perhaps. Hogwarts still lets out in December I presume?" Harry nodded quickly and Thor chuckled. "Then it's settled. I will take you to visit your grandparents over Yule." He paused, then carefully added "And perhaps your Uncle too, at least briefly." Harry blinked in surprise.

"Really?" He asked. Thor let out a conflicted huff as they entered the sitting room.

"Perhaps. I was given reason to question my perceptions of him. He seems...well enough to talk to you at the very least. He might gain release sooner than I expected." When Loki would be allowed to return to Midgard, if the Sons of Odin would ever fight together again, were different questions, but not ones Harry needed to worry about.

"Did you get the business you needed to take care of done?" Harry asked as they headed for the elevators. Thor nodded.

"I did. I'll have to tell the others about it, but for now it's behind us, and there's no longer any danger." He paused. "Harry, from what I overheard, you have had dealings with the Malfoy boy before?" Harry scowled and nodded shortly.

"He's a bully and a prat and I hate him." He said shortly. Thor blinked, a little surprised at the vehemence in his son's voice, given how kind and even tempered Harry usually behaved, but nodded.

"Given what little I've seen of his father, that does not surprise me." He said. Harry frowned.

"I heard you telling Mr. Weasley that you'd met Malfoy's dad before. He tried to recruit you for something?" Harry hadn't been overly paying attention, he'd been talking to Hermione and Ginny, and then Clint had slid over to make sure everything was okay. Thor grimaced.

"Yes, Lucius Malfoy was a rather high ranking member of Voldemort's army, the Death Eaters." Harry blinked.

"Wait, really? Mr. Malfoy is evil?" He said in surprise. "A bad guy, like the ones you and the others fight?" Thor cocked his head to the side, considering the point.

"More or less I suppose." He admitted, having never thought about it in those particular terms. "Given that he was walking about Diagon Alley unhindered, I assume he feigned reformation. Which is why I bring this up." He looked down at his son seriously. "Harry, the business I was attending to was that Clint and Natasha caught Lucius Malfoy attempting to sneak a dangerous artifact into Hogwarts. I don't know why he did this, or why he felt safe to do so when his own son attends the school, but be on your guard, okay?" He didn't like having to warn his young son about danger in his school, but he liked the idea of sending him unaware even less. Lucius might not have the weapon he'd intended to use, but without knowing the man's motivations he had no way of knowing if he had a backup plan to the horcrux or not. Harry looked a little crestfallen at the news that the upcoming year might be dangerous, but he nodded.

"Can't be worse than last year." He said with forced brightness.

"This time you will have aid beyond your friends." Thor told him, attempting to cheer him. "Simply say the name Heimdall and you will have the attention of the guardian of Asgard. He will make sure that I, or one of my friends, comes to aid you." Harry brightened at that, relieved. He had never truly wanted to be in danger it was just that, well, none of the adults would listen to him. The knowledge that he'd have the option to get adults who would listen to him to come help was a big relief. Thor himself paused. It occurred to him that he hadn't actually told Sif or the Warriors about Harry. His mother or father might have mentioned their grandson, but they might not. He'd have to take care of that later. For now, he just wanted to spend time with his son and with his lover.

To his surprise however, it wasn't just Jane he found in his living room, but Tony, Steve, and Clint as well, the three looking over a pair of maps, one paper and the other a hologram, both of Scotland. "What are you doing?" Thor asked, noting that Harry seemed unsurprised to see them, which suggested that they'd been there for a while.

"Trying to find the kid's school." Tony said, waving a hand and moving the holographic map. "We've partially mapped out the train line, but without an end point it's tricky." Steve was examining the paper map, which was currently dotted in small red Xs. He'd spent a decent amount of time in the UK back in World War Two, and was marking off viable spots Tony suggested that he'd been to personally and knew didn't have a magic castle school. Clint was offering up suggestions based on his knowledge from occasional missions to the region for SHIELD, but given the way he was sitting on the top of the couch with a beer he seemed mostly to be there because he was bored. For her part Jane was studying _A History of Magic_ , though if that was her looking for clues for Tony and Steve's project or for her own separate thing was up for debate.

"There's a really big lake and a huge forest nearby." Harry offered up, sitting between Jane and the arm or the couch that Clint didn't have his feet on. "The lake's pretty deep too, there's a giant squid living in it." Tony blinked a few times at that, then shook his head.

"Don't ask how, the answer's probably just 'a wizard did it'." He muttered to himself. "Thanks kid, that narrows it down a bit." Thor leaned over, examining the map, then pressed his finger to a spot on the hologram.

"Hogwarts is here." He said finally, pointing at the ruins of a castle. "I've not seen it with non magical eyes, but I assume that's what it's enchanted to look like to prevent prying eyes." Tony huffed.

"Was hoping that wouldn't work on satellites. Oh well, guess we'd have found them stupid quickly if satellites could see through their spells. Going to have to study that, see if I can find a work around." He frowned. "My camera completely fizzled out once we entered that pub." Clint nodded.

"Mine and Natasha's too." He agreed. "Same with our mikes." Steve blinked, startled.

"You guys brought recording equipment?" He asked before shaking his head. "What am I saying, of course you did."

"May I ask why you want to know?" Thor asked, sitting down between Jane and Clint and putting his arm around Jane. She nuzzled against him, but didn't look up from her book, too engrossed. "Just curiosity?"

"Partly." Tony admitted readily. "But also, the kid told us a bit about his last year. Considering the stuff he got up to, thought it'd be best to have a drone following the train, keep an eye on him." Harry turned red at that, and he shifted a bit in his seat, but didn't say anything. Thor, for his part, was touched.

"Thank you Tony." He said with a nod. "That's very thoughtful of you." Tony waved him off.

"It's no biggie. What can I say, I like him. The thunderbolt has good taste in music." Thor blinked, and glanced over at Harry, whose face at this point was close to matching his hair for color.

"I...I like rock and roll." Harry muttered. "The Dursleys hated it…well, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia did, I don't know what Dudley thought. Tony has a lot of it though." Thor chuckled. That was a bit of an understatement.

"Anyway, I'm going to go get to work. Now that I know where the place is, I need to start getting drones over there, see how close I can get to the school before they crash and what data I can get from their crashes." Tony said, standing up and leaving. As Steve started folding up the map, Clint looked over at Thor.

"So, find out anything useful up in Asgard?" The archer asked. Thor nodded.

"Yes, mother destroyed the artifact quite handedly."

"What was it?" Steve asked curiously, looking up from the map. Thor paused, unsure of how much he wanted to say in front of Harry. He decided to go for a partial truth, the more relevant part.

"In truth I do not know." He admitted. "I was told that its purpose would have been to possess the one who read it, but to what end I do not know." He wasn't certain of whose soul the horcrux had been, but Loki had said that it didn't appear to be designed to function as one normally did. He'd asked his mother for clarification before leaving Asgard, and she'd explained that, normally, horcruxes acted as anchors. However many times one lost their body, so long as the horcrux existed they would not move on to any of the various afterlifes. Having one possess a person made no sense unless the intention was to clone yourself or open up something that was locked to all others. Neither option was good, but which was the case was important. "Unfortunately, judging from what I saw in Flourish and Blotts Lucius Malfoy is well off, and given what I remember of the wizarding community in Britain that means he's likely well respected. I need to interrogate him, but I am...not subtle." That got matching snorts of agreement from Clint and Jane and a chuckle from Steve, to which Thor gave a self deprecating smile of agreement.

"And more to the point, I lack the skill to make a man talk without doing him harm, or at least threatening it. That could have negative consequences for Harry, so I don't wish to take that route unless I must. And as you saw earlier, at Diagon Alley, there are spells that keep a person without magic from seeing buildings, which means that, unfortunately, I cannot ask you or Natasha." He continued, glancing at Clint. "What I need is a way to make him talk without hurting him, a way to make him tell the...truth…" Thor let his words trail off as he looked at Steve. Steve blinked, then realized where this was going.

"I have no idea where she is." Steve said quickly, holding up his hands. "It's been fifty years almost, and even if she is still alive, which she might not be because I have no proof she was immortal, and still in France, I don't know how we'd find her."

"Do you remember her face?" Clint interjected. "I've seen you sketch, you're pretty good at it. If you draw her face, and it's accurate, we can run it through SHIELD facial recognition. Unless she's living in a cave or the woods, away from all cameras, we'll find her, or at least have a place to start. And if she's not immortal and died, we might be able to find out if she had kids that she passed that lasso on to." Steve let out a long huff, but nodded.

"I'll do my best." He promised, running a hand through his hair. "Let me go get my pencils and notebook."

"Thank you my friend." Thor said.

"Yeah, thanks." Harry said. He didn't want to show it, but the fact that a bad guy was trying to sneak something into his school worried him. A lot. Last year had ended with him and Ron in the hospital wing, and that had been when one of the _good guys_ (the best good guy who wasn't an Avenger according to Hermione) snuck something into the castle. He didn't want to think about what might have happened if Malfoy's dad had been successful. Steve gave him a small smile and headed off.

OoOoOoOoO

 **One Hour Ago - Midtown School of Science and Technology**

"Well, here they are. The prisoners, released on parole." Emma said, her voice taking on a teasing edge. After the guided tour Emma had lead Ahmanet to the school's library, and towards a nook with a trio of armchairs and a couch, all battered but still intact and fairly comfortable. Ahmanet looked up to see a set of four teens, two boys and two girls, heading towards them. One of the girls, a blonde, detached herself from the tallest of the bunch, a very messy haired brunette boy, to give Emma a firm look as she sat herself in the armchair opposite Ahmanet's, with the messy boy perching himself on the back of said armchair.

"Don't go lumping me in with these delinquents Emma, I'm tutoring." She said, her voice tinged with faint, fond mockery, though if that was aimed at Emma or the so called delinquents Ahmanet wasn't sure.

"Choosing to spend your summer helping the irredeemable is as worthy of mockery as being absurdly truant or openly insulting your teachers Gwen." Emma retorted.

"Irredeemable is a bit harsh, don't you think?" The other boy, also brunette but much more put together than the one sitting on Gwen's chair, pointed out as he flopped onto the couch. "I mean, give me a break, I'm new to not being homeschooled. I don't know what Peter's excuse is."

"Not that I don't love our banter but…" The other new girl, one with her black hair in a short, neat bob, gestured at Ahmanet. "Maybe we introduce ourselves, yeah?" She gave Emma a pointed look and remained standing.

"Oh, yes, I suppose." Emma said casually. "Everyone, this is Ahmanet, recently arrived from Egypt." Ahmanet gave a small wave and a smile, trying to remember what the polite, casual greeting was and _not_ act like royalty. "She'll be attending summer classes to adjust to our school system before the year actually starts. Not because she's an idiot like most of you." The messy boy huffed.

"I'm not an idiot, I just have a lot of...stuff going on." He said before giving Ahmanet an awkward little wave. "Hey, I'm Peter Parker." The other boy sat up, sliding himself along the couch and holding out his hand. Ahmanet recognized the gesture and shook. His grip was surprisingly strong she noted.

"Dick Grayson." He seemed braced for something as he said his name, but neither his first nor last triggered anything in Ahmanet's brain, so she said nothing, which made him relax with a chuckle. "Hey, you're more mature than Peter or Zatanna, that's nice." Peter squawked.

"What is this, rag on Peter day?" The blonde whose chair he was sitting on chuckled and patted his knee.

"Don't be silly Peter, that's Wednesday. You'll know because it's the day we wear pink." She said before looking at Ahmanet. "I'm Gwen Stacy by the way. The sane one."

"What does that make me?" Emma asked, trying to look indignant but clearly smirking.

"The evil one." Gwen replied quickly, not missing a beat and getting a chuckle from her fellow blonde. Ahmanet watched them interact with a slight pang in her chest. She'd never really had...friends before. There were certainly people she wasn't related to that she liked, her combat instructor chief among them and a couple servants, but by and large there hadn't been anyone she'd allowed herself to get close to, anyone that her station would have allowed herself to be close to. At the time, she hadn't cared, she was in line to take the throne and that mattered more than anything else. Now however, she had no throne to take, no real concrete goal to aspire to. She was...adrift. Maybe Lorraine was right, and this might help. Not that she'd ever admit that of course.

"I apologize for...us." The black haired girl said, gesturing at herself and her friends. "This is what happens when you let a bunch of teenagers spend too much time with each other I guess. I'm Zatanna by the way. Zatanna Zatara." Ahmanet blinked behind her glasses. That was an unusual name to say the least.

"It is nice to meet you all. I hope I am not intruding." She said.

"Please, Emma's the only snobby one here." Dick said, waving his hand as Zatanna finally sat down. "The rest of us have no standards, so if you impressed Emma enough to let you sit you'll have no trouble." Ahmanet cocked her head to the side.

"That was not as...complimentary as I think you thought it was." She said slowly. Dick chuckled ruefully and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, realized that after I said it." He admitted.

OoOoOoOoO

 **The Next Day - Avengers Tower**

"That's her." Steve said, pointing at the photograph on the screen of Clint's laptop. Thor noticed that his friend sounded more than a little stunned almost as if he was about to faint. "She looks exactly the same."

"Diana Prince." Clint read, pulling up the file attached to the picture. "She works in the art restoration department at the Louvre." He paused, frowning. "She's got a SHIELD file already, a pretty comprehensive one. She's been noticed. Doesn't say what for though, strange." He reached out and pressed a couple buttons on his phone. "Hey Nat, you know anything about Diana Prince, an art restorer in Paris?"

"No, why?" Natasha replied, sounding slightly out of breath. Thor glanced at the clock and realized they were interrupting the redhead's morning workout. It was a good thing Clint had made the call, anyone else would likely have been ignored at best, and had their hidden stash of pop tarts sabotaged at worst. Not that he'd ever been so foolish to do just that of course, and if Harry ever asked he'd claim it was lies spread by Tony.

"We're pretty sure she's Steve's Wonder Woman, and she's got a pretty hefty file that's just a study of her everyday routine. Nothing overtly suggesting she's enhanced, but somebody's definitely keeping an eye on her. Was wondering if you'd been assigned to her at some point, or if Maria had said something to you."

"Doesn't ring a bell, sorry." Natasha said, the sound of thumping suggesting that she'd started hitting a sandbag while talking.

"Why would she have a file in the first place?" Steve asked, a little thrown off. Clint shrugged.

"There's a couple artifacts in most big museums that we're pretty sure were made from the remains of alien tech. Ancient people find a chunk of a spaceship, don't know what it is but assume the gods left it where they could find it for a reason, and so they make something out of it. Most of the time it's harmless, a strangely durable sword or something, but occasionally there's radiation or nanites or something and it can get messy. SHIELD likes to keep tabs on the art restoration departments because of that, since they're the ones most likely to poke around at stuff and accidentally trigger things." He glanced back at Thor. "You'll be wanting to talk to her today? If you leave now you should be able to catch her on her lunch break." Thor nodded.

"The sooner we talk to her the better." He said firmly. "I need answers from Lucius Malfoy before the Hogwarts term starts. That book could have been the entire plan, or it could have been a trigger for a much more serious chain of events." He looked at Steve. "Would you be willing to accompany me? It would be helpful to have you make introductions." Steve nodded.

"That wouldn't be a problem. It'd be nice to see her again."

"Well, if you're going to France, you'll be needing a quinjet, especially if she agrees." Clint pointed out. "Hey Nat, you willing to fly these guys to Paris?" There was a pause in the thumping coming from Natasha's side of the conversation.

"Why me?" She demanded, a little put out.

"I've already got plans for tonight, and Tony's locked in the lab on some new project. Probably the drones he wants to watch over Harry."

"I've got plans too you know."

"Yes, but unless there's something you weren't telling me, you haven't been planning your thing for over a month." There was a long moment of silence, followed by a huff from Natasha.

"Fine. Give me an hour, I have to cancel and get ready."

"Thank you Natasha." Thor said quickly, before she could hang up.

"Yeah yeah, you're lucky I like you people."

OoOoOoOoO

 **Three Hours Later - Paris, France**

Diana sat down in a back corner of her favorite little coffee shop, a small, random little hole in the wall close enough to her office in the Louvre to not require her to gulp her coffee down, but far enough away to not be a tourist hole and let her stretch her legs in the process. She took a sip of her café noisette, glancing at her phone as she did so, and when she looked up she was greeted with a face she had not seen in a long time. Her expression shifted rapidly, from surprise to confusion to finally happiness, and she stood up, giving the American a firm hug. "Steve!" She said, taking a step back to look at the man. "It is good to see you. You look exactly the same."

"So do you, Diana." Steve said with a slight smile. Diana blinked for a second, but brushed it off. It wasn't surprising that he'd know her name, given that he'd managed to find her again.

"I was confused, and a little angry, when I heard that Captain America was fighting in New York." Diana confided, her voice quieter to avoid being overheard. "Imagine my surprise when I saw the footage and realized that it really was you." She leaned in. "How are you still alive?"

"I crashed a plane in the Arctic, and it froze me. About a year ago or so I was found and thawed out." Diana nodded, forcing her face to be serious.

"A Capsicle." She said, trying to sound wise and sagely in so doing but unable to hide her smile. Steve let out a sigh and shook his head.

"That's not going away any time soon." He muttered. "And you?" Diana's face drew tight.

"I don't...age." She said slowly. "A product of my birth." Steve nodded, letting it stay at that.

"Look Diana," He said slowly. "I know you don't like leaving France but...I need your help. Well, a friend of mine needs your help." He quickly held up his hands. "It's nothing violent, we don't need you to fight or anything. It's just, my friend...a bad guy tried to sneak something very dangerous into his son's school. We need to know if he had any backup plans or such and…"

"You need the Lasso of Truth." Diana finished, nodding. She sighed, running a hand through her hair. She'd never called in a sick day before, she could get off early...Steve wouldn't lie to her, he was a good man, and he seemed to genuinely need her help. "I am not joining the Avengers." She said finally. "I will help you interrogate this man, but I am not coming with you to New York." Steve brightened and nodded.

"Of course not. Just a one time thing."

OoOoOoOoO

 **At the Same Time - The Mandarin's Home**

Two hours ago a message had gone out. _Thor, Captain Rogers, and Agent Romanova have left the country. Agent Barton is heading North towards an unknown destination. Now is an optimal time to launch._

Of course, the man calling himself the Mandarinhad no idea about that. All he knew was that mere minutes ago, a baker's dozen missiles crashed down towards his valley. He had been able to destroy or deflect most of them into the nearby mountains, but not all of them. To make matters worse, they were Tony Stark's Jericho missiles, so even the ones that he deflected exploded with enough force to inflict terrible damage regardless. Only he, and those in the basement of his home, had survived.

He stormed through the remains of his palace, and picked up a shard of metal. He growled, seeing the familiar Stark Industries logo. He turned towards one of his few remaining lieutenants. "Alert our minions in the United States, both our own and those of AIM. I know not if Stark himself launched this attack, but the Jericho missiles were supposed to have been destroyed years ago, when he first donned his suit. Only he would be able to have more made, and he will know who attacked us. Order an attack on New York, now. Tell them I will join them shortly." His man nodded quickly and hurried away, leaving the Mandarin to growl and head his own way. He needed to get ready for battle. If the Avengers and their allies wanted a war, he would give it to them.

OoOoOoOoO

Wellp, that was chapter 10! Took a little longer to finish it than I'd have liked, but less than the gap between chapters 8 and 9 at least! And hey, the Mandarin is getting ready to do stuff, meaning we're actually advancing the plot instead of just puttering!

So, some stuff to address. As you might have guessed considering Gwen's presence, the Peter Parker we're going with is the Andrew Garfield version. I'm sorry, I know we have a Peter in the MCU, and in all honesty Tom Holland is a very talented young man who has done a good job in all of his movies so far, and Homecoming was good, and if if it was just Tom Holland against Tobey Maguire I wouldn't hesitate but...I miss Andrew Garfield. I'm sorry, I do. I walked out of Homecoming and my first words were just 'I miss Andrew Garfield'. Tom Holland was good, but...Andrew is my Peter and I can't help myself. It's like how in Doctor Who fan works, the Doctor that shows up is rarely the most current one but the one the creator likes best. I'm sorry if you hate Andrew, or love Tom, but this was what felt right to me and I hope you guys can forgive me.

On the topic of actors and casting, Gwen is (of course) Emma Stone. I'm of mixed feelings about Zatanna's casting, I'm currently torn between Tatiana Maslany, because I love her and I think she'd do a good job, and Lacey Chabert, who is the official voice for the character in animation and video games right now. Let me know if you have a preference, and if you have any suggestions for Dick, because I'm at a bit of a loss. Oh, and I think I might have said that Ben Kingsley would still be playing the Mandarin when I started this fic. Scratch that, he's a good actor but no, Donnie Yen is the Mandarin instead.

I will also say that no, Emma isn't mind controlling any of the teens Ahmanet met here, nor is she even really influencing their thoughts. She might lightly skim Peter and Gwen occasionally, but she's very wary of the other three, as she can feel Ahmanet and Zatanna's powers and her first skim revealed that Dick has very sensitive mental defenses. That being said, she's not above messing with the minds of the people around them.

Oh, and we will be using the movie version of the Aquaman cast of characters, because that movie was great! They'll probably be aged down a bit, but that's who'll be playing them at least.

If any of you want to ask a more specific, possibly spoilery question, feel free to leave a review or shoot me a PM! I


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